Comments on: How do you say "thirty one" in other languages?

Question: How do you say "thirty one" in other languages?

mdn — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:34:03 -0800

Multilingual folks: I need your help translating the word "thirty-one" into as many languages as possible.

I got dutch, french, greek, italian, portugese and spanish on babel-fish, but can't read the chinese, japanese, korean or russian (maybe people can post a teeny gif for those ones?), and the german came up as "thirty-one". Plus I would like random other languages anyone happens to know - latin, ancient greek, arabic, swedish, danish, swahili, eqyptian, whatever. Don't bother with the various numeric translations (11111, 43, V, XXXI, etc) though - I did that last year :)

By: mdn

mdn — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:35:59 -0800

And I know I'm opening myself up for people to give me "go fuck a pig" in chinese and tell me it's my age, so double checking is welcome and appreciated.

By: Skot

Skot — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:38:49 -0800

Yay! A chance to show off my meager knowledge of Estonian!

Thirty-one in Estonian is "kolmkümmend-üks."

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:41:50 -0800

I learned Romanian playing bingo in Transylvania. 31 is trei zeci si unu [pronounced TRAY zetch SHEE oonoo].

By: Zootoon

Zootoon — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:49:24 -0800

Trenta-u (Catalan)

By: Skot

Skot — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:50:16 -0800

I learned Romanian playing bingo in Transylvania.

Jessamyn, I think we've all played bingo in Transylvania. Try not to clutter up the site with such mundane trivia.

In all seriousness, mdn, and not sniping: Doing a Google search with the terms "[x] numbers" where x=any language brings up many useful links.

By: benzo8

benzo8 — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:50:59 -0800

You've got "trettioett" in Swedish.

By: Space Coyote

Space Coyote — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:51:50 -0800

I believe the Romanian would be treizeci si unu, with no space.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:51:58 -0800

einsunddreißig is what it would be in german, I believe.

(eyens-und-dry-sig)

By: biffa

biffa — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:56:52 -0800

Haven't they got rid of that big B thing in favour of just writing ss now? ie its einsunddreissig now.

By: riffola

riffola — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:57:54 -0800

Ek-a-tree-s in Gujarati
Ik-a-ttees in Hindi
and I think it's Ek-tis in Marathi

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:59:17 -0800

No s in the German: einunddreißig. (einunddreißig vs. einsunddreißig in Google)

By: MzB

MzB — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 10:01:27 -0800

double checking: Space Coyote got it right (treizeci si unu).
mdn, use this page

By: AwkwardPause

AwkwardPause — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 10:11:26 -0800

MzB's link is spot on for Danish (it's "enogtredive").

...and it's a pretty neat link, too.

By: riffola

riffola — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 10:15:17 -0800

31 (Ek-a-tree-s) is written as follows in Gujarati: અેકત&xac3;ીસ

By: riffola

riffola — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 10:16:02 -0800

Shoot it ought to be: અેકતૃીસ

By: Johnny Assay

Johnny Assay — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 10:22:28 -0800

Too bad the number you want isn't between one and ten.

By: kenko

kenko — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 10:31:06 -0800

That's waht I thought of immediately, Johnny Assay. Remembered it as being numbers between 1 and 100.

By: DaShiv

DaShiv — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 10:40:46 -0800

Here's a link to 31 in Chinese (pronounciation--the numbers represent tones, 1 denotes neutral and 2 denotes ascending). The three characters read, from left to right, "three ten one", although if you want to be more traditional about it you'd write them from top to bottom.

If this is for an upcoming birthday, happy birthday. If pig fucking is slated as entertainment, we want pictures.

By: SpaceCadet

SpaceCadet — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 10:53:39 -0800

Japanese: san-ju ichi

Thai: sam-sip et

By: bonehead

bonehead — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 11:03:34 -0800

Old Icelandic: vetr um þrítugt (lit. one beyond thirty)

Modern Icelandic (neuter): þrjátíu og einn

By: bonehead

bonehead — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 11:07:44 -0800

Sorry, messed up: þrjátíu og einnthe is the nominative masculine form.

By: advil

advil — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 12:01:24 -0800

Old Irish should be "a n-óen trichot" or "a n-óen trichat" but I don't have an attested example on hand, so I'm working from a grammar.

My girlfriend says that in ancient egyptian it would be written something like "nnn?" (I'm not sure if that will come out, and I used math symbols as approximations, so it's three set union symbols followed by a vertical bar.)

They know an approximate pronunciation of this, but there is no good way to do the transliteration symbols in this post. It is something like "maba wa", where the vowels are to be replaced by something else. So I wouldn't actually use the thing in quotes for anything unless you want to make egyptologists sad.

By: advil

advil — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 12:06:27 -0800

ok, that didn't come out at all, even for me. The Ancient Egyptian looks something like "nnn|" where the n's should just be curves without the vertical line sticking up on the left side of the n.

By: callmejay

callmejay — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 12:33:10 -0800

shloshim v'ekhad (phonetic) in Hebrew.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 12:48:56 -0800

MzB: Thanks for that great link, I've blogged it!

mdn: The Russian is (masculine form, transliterated) tridtsat'-odin, pronounced (very roughly) TREAT-sut ah-DEAN.

By: Gyan

Gyan — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 13:08:50 -0800

What riffola said, except that in Gujarati and Hindi, the "a" is pretty short.

By: widdershins

widdershins — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 13:09:21 -0800

trettien OR enogtredve - Norwegian

By: casarkos

casarkos — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 15:36:25 -0800

Taiwanese: saam dzap ji (phonetic)

By: niceness

niceness — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 15:57:16 -0800

Malay: Tiga puluh satu

By: ruelle

ruelle — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 16:07:08 -0800

Polish: trzydziesci jeden.
(CHeuh jeh shhtee yeden)

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 16:24:10 -0800

In japanese it would be san-juu issai (rather than ichi) if you are talking about age. If you are talking about 31 lobsters or tennis courts or autogyros, the ending would be different.

By: mdn

mdn — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 19:25:45 -0800

you guys really are awesome.
planetkyoto, completely hadn't thought of that, interesting.
MzB, excellent link, muchas gracias.
DaShiv, yes, for something for my birthday, in just under 2 weeks (9/22). I should try to remember to take pictures, actually, despite the lack of hog humping foreseen.

By: desert_roamer

desert_roamer — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 19:38:40 -0800

Swahili: thelathini na moja

By: desert_roamer

desert_roamer — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 20:27:04 -0800

And some seriously long phonetics!

Twi (Ghana): adoo-asa-bee-ah-koh
Bambara (Mali): bi-sahb-bah-ni-kay-leng
Crioulo (Cape Verde islands): trin-tay-ahn
Yoruba (Benin/Nigeria): mo-kahng-meh-wah-le-loh-gbohng
Fulfulde (Northern Senegal): chappantatigoo
Mandrika (Northern Gambia): tang saba ning kiling
Hausa (All over West Africa): talaatin shaa d'aya

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 21:35:09 -0800

Maori: toru tekau ma tahi.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 22:08:45 -0800

I notice that 31 in Korea (using the chinese-based counting system, one of two that Koreans use, along with the pure Korean one) is sam-ship il (phonetically, of course), which is remarkably similar to the Taiwanese and Thai versions above. Cool bananas, huh?

By: ursus_comiter

ursus_comiter — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 23:31:46 -0800

Finnish: kolmekymmentäyksi

By: weston

weston — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 23:38:56 -0800

Samoan: Tolu Sefulu Tasi (literaly, three ten one)

By: weston

weston — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 23:42:18 -0800

Shoot. Looking at i_am_joe's_spleen's maori made me doubt that I hadn't forgotten something...it may well be "Tolu Sefulu ma tasi" or even "Tolu Sefulu ma le tasi". That's what I get for not speaking it for 10 years.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 04:12:32 -0800

Sorry, forgot the actual Korean number system version : suhruhn-hana.

By: penguin pie

penguin pie — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 08:57:10 -0800

Skot, DAMN you for beating me to it. What are the odds on being beaten to post the Estonian for 31?

In the interests of making this comment useful, I don't have any other obscure languages under my belt, but I can vouch for Skot's answer. Väga hea, mu sõber...