# All Slavic languages: reading decimal numbers



## Encolpius

Hello, I wonder how you read decimal numbers in your language. 
I am afraid only *Czech and Slovak* uses a very unique reading I haven't encountered in other languages except my mother tongue, so I wonder what origin it is if it is used in other Slavic languages, too. I am mostly interested in the unique word "*celý (whole)*"....

*Czech*: 
0,6 -- žádná/nula *celá *šest desetin [lit.: zero *whole *six tenth]
1,06 -- jedna *celá *šest setin [lit.: one *whole *six hundredth]
2,6 -- dvě *celé *šest desetin [lit.: two *wholes *six tenth]
5,6 -- pět *celých *šest desetin [lit.: five *wholes *six tenth]

So you can see the word celý (whole) is declined according to the Czech grammar rules, tenth or hundredth is nothing especial it exists in most languages. In common language the tenth or hundreth is left out. 

Do you use the word celý (whole)????????

Thanks.


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## Azori

Encolpius said:


> I am afraid only *Czech and Slovak* uses a very unique reading I haven't encountered in other languages except my mother tongue, so I wonder what origin it is if it is used in other Slavic languages, too. I am mostly interested in the unique word "*celý (whole)*"....
> 
> *Czech*:
> 0,6 -- žádná/nula *celá *šest desetin [lit.: zero *whole *six tenth]
> 1,06 -- jedna *celá *šest setin [lit.: one *whole *six hundredth]
> 2,6 -- dvě *celé *šest desetin [lit.: two *wholes *six tenth]
> 5,6 -- pět *celých *šest desetin [lit.: five *wholes *six tenth]


In Slovak it would be:

0,6 -- nula *celých* šesť desatín
1,06 -- jedna *celá* šesť stotín
2,6 -- dve *celé* šesť desatín
5,6 -- päť *celých* šesť desatín

The words _desatina_ (tenth), _stotina_ (hundredth) etc. are usually omitted in colloquial language. The adjective _celý_ isn't always declined as it should be so one can hear _"nula celých šesť"_ as well as _"nula celá šesť"_ or _"nula celé šesť"_...


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## Arath

In Bulgarian there is a short (more commonly used) and a long way of reading decimal numbers:

0,6 - нула цяло и шест/нула цяло и шест десети - nula cjalo i šest/nula cjalo i šest deseti - zero whole and six/zero whole and six tenths
1,06 - едно цяло нула шест/едно цяло и шест стотни - edno cjalo nula šest/edno cjalo i šest stotni - one whole zero six/one whole and six hundredths
1,006 - едно цяло нула нула шест/едно цяло и шест хилядни - edno cjalo nula nula šest/edno cjalo i šest hiljadni - one whole zero zero six/one whole and six thousandths.
2,6 - две цяло и шест/две цяло и шест десети - dve cjalo i šest/dve cjalo i šest deseti - two whole and six/two whole and six tenths


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## Roman A

Ukrаiniаn 0,6-нуль цiлих i шiсть десятих(slovаk trаns: nuľ cilych i šisť desjatych) 1.06-одна цiла i  шiсть сотих(odnа cilа i šisť sotych), 1.6-одна цiла  i шiсть десятих(odna cila  i šisť desjatych), 2.6-два цiлих i шiсть десятих(dvа cilych i šisť desjatych), 5.6-п'ять цілих i шість десятих(p'jať cilych i šisť desjatych)


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## marco_2

Polish: 

0,6 - _sześć dziesiątych _or in colloquial speech _zero przecinek sześć (= nought comma six)_
1,06 - _jedna cała i sześć setnych _or _jeden przecinek / i  sześć setnych
2,6 - dwie całe i sześć dziesiątych or dwa przecinek sześć
5,6 - pięć całych i sześć dziesiątych  or pięć przecinek sześć
_


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## bibax

The origin is Latin, of course.

If you are interested, in Czech the adjective *celá* (fem. form) stands for *celá část* (desetinného čísla). In Latin *nulla* (also fem. form) means _žádná_, nulla pars integra = žádná celá část.


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## oveka

Ukrаiniаn
It is possible and so:
_0,6-нуль цiлих i шiсть десятих
1.06-одна цiла i  шiсть сотих
1.6-одна цiла й шiсть
2.6-дві й шiсть
 2.43-дві, сорок три
5.6-п'ять i  шість _


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## Encolpius

Wow, that's really fantastic that *the word "celý"* is used in many Slavic languages....I am really surprised...I wonder if Russian and BCS use them, too....


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## learnerr

Encolpius said:


> Wow, that's really fantastic that *the word "celý"* is used in many Slavic languages....I am really surprised...I wonder if Russian and BCS use them, too....


Russian does. 6,1 = «шесть целых одна десятая»


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## itreius

Encolpius said:


> BCS



Yes, it's used here as well.



Encolpius said:


> *Czech*:
> 0,6 -- žádná/nula *celá *šest desetin [lit.: zero *whole *six tenth]
> 1,06 -- jedna *celá *šest setin [lit.: one *whole *six hundredth]
> 2,6 -- dvě *celé *šest desetin [lit.: two *wholes *six tenth]
> 5,6 -- pět *celých *šest desetin [lit.: five *wholes *six tenth]




0,6 - nula cijelih/cijelo (i) šest (desetina)
1,06 - jedno cijelih/cijelo (i) šest (stotinki)
2,6 - dva cijelih/cijelo (i) šest (desetina)
5,6 - pet cijelih/cijelo (i) šest (desetina)

Alternatively, one could use _zarez_ instead of _cijelo_/_cijelih_. _Zarez_ means _comma_.


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## Encolpius

Thank you all, so we can say it is a pan-Slavic grammatical phenomenon....I think we have it from a Slavic language...but it would be interesting to know if it is used in other less common European languages....


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## francisgranada

Encolpius said:


> ... I think we have it from a Slavic language...


I don't think the Hungarian "system" necessarilly comes from the Slavic, rather both the Slavic and Hungarian come from Latin (#6). 


> ... but it would be interesting to know if it is used in other less common European languages....


I don't know what's the situation in the less common languages, but the construction with "celý" is possible also in some other laguages as well, e.g. in Spanish "tres _enteros _setenta y cinco centésimas" (3,75), though "tres _coma _setenta y cinco" is more common in the spoken language.  The full Spanish form could be: tres _números _enteros y 75 _partes _centésimas.

I'm even not sure whether we can speak of a common Slavic construction ... It's more probable that they are independent calques of Latin (I don't think the Slavs used decimal numbers in e.g. the 5th o 6th centuries).


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## Thomas1

Something interesting on the origin of decimal fractions:In discussing the origins of decimal fractions, Dirk Jan Struik states:[18]​"The introduction of decimal fractions as a common computational practice can be dated back to the Flemish pamphlet _De Thiende_, published at Leyden in 1585, together with a French translation, _La Disme_, by the Flemish mathematician Simon Stevin (1548-1620), then settled in the Northern Netherlands. It is true that decimal fractions were used by the Chinese many centuries before Stevin and that the Persian astronomer Al-Kāshī used both decimal and sexagesimal fractions with great ease in his _Key to arithmetic_ (Samarkand, early fifteenth century)."[19]
​While the Persian mathematician Jamshīd al-Kāshī  claimed to have discovered decimal fractions himself in the 15th  century, J. Lennart Berggren notes that he was mistaken, as decimal  fractions were first used five centuries before him by the Baghdadi mathematician Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi as early as the 10th century.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraction_(mathematics)#History
​


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## Vanja

itreius said:


> Yes, it's used here as well.
> 
> 0,6 - nula cijelih/cijelo (i) šest (desetina)
> 1,06 - jedno cijelih/cijelo (i) šest (stotinki)
> 2,6 - dva cijelih/cijelo (i) šest (desetina)
> 5,6 - pet cijelih/cijelo (i) šest (desetina)
> 
> Alternatively, one could use _zarez_ instead of _cijelo_/_cijelih_. _Zarez_ means _comma_.



In Serbian there's no "whole", it would sound ridiculous. "Whole" (celo/cela) could be used when talking about fractions (in maths). "Desetina", "stotina" is not wildly or not at all used after "comma".

So there' s not much of a philosophy here:

0,6 - nula *zarez* šest
(600 - šesto/ šest *stotina*)
1,06 - jedan *zarez* nula šest
 (jedan *minut* i šest *stotinki* - only used with a measure, in this example, measure of time)
2,6 - dva *zarez* šest
5,6 - pet *zarez* šest


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## learnerr

I'd add here that in Russian the shortcut way of pronouncing numbers written this way also exists, but it is used only when spoken. The difference is, we never read aloud the comma; someone reading it aloud would sound clumsy, and he or she would appear to be starting another number anyway.


Vanja said:


> "Whole" (celo/cela) could be used when talking about fractions (in maths).


But 4,28 _is_ a fraction. This fact just gets obscured by the notation. ;-)


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