# Indian Languages: order of reading 2-decimal numbers



## Lotfi MA

Hello everybody!
Could someone, please, tel me how 2-decimal numbers are ared in terms of order in the indian languages (Devanagari, Tamil, ..); e.g: 27 or 71, which one is read first, the tens or the units?

Thanks in anticipation.


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## Outsider

Here's an earlier thread you may find interesting.


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## linguist786

The units are read first.


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## Lotfi MA

Thank you very much indeed gentlemen!
Linguist786, if you do not minde, would you please confirm this to me as for the 22 languages of Indian subcontenent that use the following scripts:
Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Bengali, Tibetan, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Malayalam, Tamil, Sinhala.
One more thing; does the same right-to-left order in reading 2-digit numbers continues with 3-digit or higher numbers?
 
Appreciating your kind confirmation.


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## panjabigator

Add the Arabic script for Urdu, and the Assamese script for Assamese. The Assamese script is nearly identical to the Bangla script save a couple letters.


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## linguist786

Lotfi MA said:
			
		

> Thank you very much indeed gentlemen!
> Linguist786, if you do not minde, would you please confirm this to me as for the 22 languages of Indian subcontenent that use the following scripts:
> Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Bengali, Tibetan, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Malayalam, Tamil, Sinhala.
> One more thing; does the same right-to-left order in reading 2-digit numbers continues with 3-digit or higher numbers?
> 
> Appreciating your kind confirmation.


I'm not sure quite what you mean. I don't actually speak all those languages. As for when it gets to hundreds, thousands etc, it doesn't continue the same way. As in, the hundreds/thousands are read first. For example, in Gujarati:

163,527 would be:

"ek so tre-sat hazaar, paanch so sattaa-vees"

literally: "one hundred sixty three thousand, five hundred, seven-twenty"


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## vince

Lotfi MA said:
			
		

> Hello everybody!
> Could someone, please, tel me how 2-decimal numbers are ared in terms of order in the indian languages (Devanagari, Tamil, ..); e.g: 27 or 71, which one is read first, the tens or the units?
> 
> Thanks in anticipation.



Keep in mind that not all Indian languages are related. There are two main groups: The northern and eastern Indo-Aryan languages (Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati, Panjabi, Assamese, Nepali, Bengali) which are based on Sanskrit and therefore distantly related to English, and the southern Dravidian languages (Kannada, Telugu, Tamil) which are not related to any other languages.


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## Lotfi MA

My obligation to you who participated in my thread; outsider, linguist786, panjabigator and vince.
Linguist786, in the example you give: 163, 527, you said it is literally read:​
“one hundred *sixty three* thousand, five hundred, seven-twenty
”
or​
“one hundred *three sixty* thousand, five hundred, seven-twenty
”
 Please, let me know.​I wish someone whose native language is either Kannada, Telugu
 to tell me, kindly, whether or not the right-to-left reading order of 2- or 3-digit numbers is applicable in such 2 languages.


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## linguist786

Lotfi MA said:
			
		

> My obligation to you who participated in my thread; outsider, linguist786, panjabigator and vince.​
> 
> Linguist786, in the example you give: 163, 527, you said it is literally read:​
> 
> “one hundred *sixty three* thousand, five hundred, seven-twenty
> ”
> or​
> “one hundred *three sixty* thousand, five hundred, seven-twenty
> ”
> Please, let me know.​I wish someone whose native language is either Kannada, Telugu
> to tell me, kindly, whether or not the right-to-left reading order of 2- or 3-digit numbers is applicable in such 2 languages.


Sorry, my bad. It's the first one. Careless mistake


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## panjabigator

Shaloo's native language is Telugu and she speaks good Kannada as well.


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## linguist786

panjabigator said:
			
		

> Shaloo's native language is Telugu and she speaks good Kannada as well.


Aishwarya Rai speaks that too i think


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## panjabigator

No her native language is Tulu, which is found mainly in southern Karnataka i n the Mangalore region.  She said on Larry King Live that she is fluent in Hindi, Marathi (she lived on Mumbai), Tulu (her mother tongue), and English (of course!), and she also said she knows a bit of Tamil (Im sure she is quite conversational in it tough considering she acted in Tamil films, albeit her voice was dubbed!


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## linguist786

no i meant Kannada - i'm sure she speaks that too. i read it on some website. hmmm


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## Lotfi MA

Well gentlemen!
I wish either of the two ladies or else would answer my question:
someone whose native language is either Kannada, Telugu, or senhala
to tell me, kindly, whether or not the right-to-left reading order of 2- or 3-digit numbers is applicable in such languages.


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## panjabigator

Neither Linguist nor myself speak those languages.  But Shaluu does...look her up and send her a PM.


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## Becker

Lotfi MA said:
			
		

> Well gentlemen!
> I wish either of the two ladies or else would answer my question:
> someone whose native language is either Kannada, Telugu, or senhala
> to tell me, kindly, whether or not the right-to-left reading order of 2- or 3-digit numbers is applicable in such languages.


 
It's left to right in Sinhalese... just like in English.


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## Lotfi MA

Thank you very much Becker for your reply.
I have a doubt that it would have been once (just up to the western colonization) right to left, then changed being influenced by the western reading order.


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## Becker

Could be Lotfi MA, although I've never read about it or heard about that   But the script has always been read from left to right... dunno whether that has a bearing on how numerals are read though.


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## shaloo

Lotfi MA said:
			
		

> Hello everybody!
> Could someone, please, tel me how 2-decimal numbers are ared in terms of order in the indian languages (Devanagari, Tamil, ..); e.g: 27 or 71, which one is read first, the tens or the units?
> 
> Thanks in anticipation.


 
Im so sorry, I haven't noticed this thread earlier.I guess I'm late. 

Well, in Telugu and Kannada, we read the ten's first and then the units.
Im sure its the same with Tamil too.

For example: 27 ----iravai eydu (_ey_ is like *ay* in *say* or *lay*) in TELUGU

And in KANNADA, 27 -------ippatteylu (*l* is pron'ced hard, u roll ur tongue and say *lu* )

Shalu


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## starsiege

I agree with Shalu, 

In Tamil we read 27 as Irhupathu EAlu


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