Numbers in Dogon

[Ɔkyeame Kwame]

Numbers in Dogon

Christopher Culy
Linguistics Department
The University of Iowa The Dogon language exemplified here is Donno SO. Note that E is the sound "eh" and O is the sound "aw".
Translate a number into Dogon:

Enter a number: Numbers in Dogon

The number system is a mixture of base 10 and base 8. Numbers go from 1-10, 10-80, 80-800, as can be seen from the charts below.

Numbers 1-30

1	ti	11	pEl-gu turu-gu sigE	21	pEnEy turu sigE
2	lEy	12	pEl-gu lEy-gu sigE	22	pEnEy lEy sigE
3	taandu	13	pEl-gu taandu-gu sigE	23	pEnEy taandu sigE
4	naay	14	pEl-gu naay-gu sigE	24	pEnEy naay sigE
5	nnO	15	pEl-gu nnO-gu sigE	25	pEnEy nnO sigE
6	kulei	16	pEl-gu kulei-gu sigE	26	pEnEy kulei sigE
7	sOy	17	pEl-gu sOy-gu sigE	27	pEnEy sOy sigE
8	gagara	18	pEl-gu gagaraw sigE	28	pEnEy gagara sigE
9	tugO	19	pEl-gu tugOw sigE	29	pEnEy tugO sigE
10	pEl	20	pEnEy	30	pEtaandu

Numbers 10-7200

10	pEl	80	sun	800	mundyu
20	pEnEy	160	sun lEy	1600	mundyu lEy
30	pEtaandu	240	sun taandu	2400	mundyu taandu
40	pEnaay	320	sun naay	3200	mundyu naay
50	pEnnO	400	sun nnO	4000	mundyu nnO
60	pEkulei	480	sun kulei	4800	mundyu kulei
70	pEsOy	560	sun sOy	5600	mundyu sOy
80	sun	640	sun gagara	6400	mundyu gagara
90	sun le pEl	720	sun tugO	7200	mundyu tugO

Numbers 100-9000

100 = 80+20	sun le pEnEy	1000 = 800+200	mundyu sun lEy pEnaay
200 = 160+40	sun lEy pEnaay	2000 = 1600+400	mundyu lEy sun nnO
300 = 240+60	sun taandu pEkulei	3000 = 2400+600	mundyu taandu sun sOy pEnaay
400	sun nnO	4000	mundyu nnO
500 = 480+20	sun kulei pEnEy	5000 = 4800+200	mundyu kulei sun lEy pEnaay
600 = 560+40	sun sOy pEnaay	6000 = 5600+400	mundyu sOy sun nnO
700 = 640 + 60	sun gagara pEkulei	7000 = 6400 + 600	mundyu gagara sun sOy pEnaay
800	mundyu	8000	mundyu pEl
900 = 800+100	mundyu sun le pEnEy	9000 = 8800+200	mundyu pEl-gu turu-gu sige sun lEy pEnaay

In some Dogon languages, the number system is being re-evaluated to be a pure base 10 system, as seen below. The bases, sun and munju, take on the values 100 and 1000 instead of 80 and 800, respectively. To clarify which counting system is being used, a qualifier can be added to the bases. For example in TOrO SO, 80 = dogo sun (dogo = Dogon), 100 = amasara sun (amasara = 'evil god'); 800 = dogo munju, 1000 amasara munju. TEmEdErE is a borrowing from Fula (100).

Newer numbers

80	pEl gagara	800	sun gagara
90	pEl tugO	900	sun tugO
100	sun or tEmEdErE	1000	munju
200	sun lEy or tEmEdErE lEy	2000	munju lEy
	etc.		etc.

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To Faculty: Culy

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Revised 24 September 1996 Copyright 1996 Christopher Culy All rights reserved. Send comments to:
Christopher Culy chris-culy@uiowa.edu