This lesson will cover the basics of the selsimicu number system! And that's about it! Let's not waste any time.
Selsimicu uses a senary (base six) number system. Don't know what that is? Well, we use base ten usually. Decimal! You count from 0 to 9 and then go up a digit to reach "ten" (10•). In a senary system, you count from 0 to 5 and then go up a digit to each "six" (10). You can let that sink in. This is how we'll be working for this lesson! Numbers in decimal that may be confused with senary will be terminated with a dot (•).
First off, selsians work with these six basic numbers:
zero (0)
one (1), hence Section sai previously!
two (2), hence Section zut previously!
three (3), hence Section mon which we are in now!
four (4)
five (5)
As I said before, you only count from 0 to 5 in a senary system. So what's six?
Alongside these 5 digits, the selsimicu number system also employs 3 "magnitude suffixes", which multiply one of the digits by a certain power of six. These are:
sixes place, ×10
thirty sixes place, ×100
two hundred sixteens place, ×1000
So, you say saija (1×10) for "six", zutja (2×10) for "twelve", monja (3×10) for "eighteen", and so on! Then sai'el (1×100), zutel (2×100), monel (3×100). sai'aw (1×1000), zutaw (2×1000), monaw (3×1000). And so on!
You can chain these digits, that have different suffixes, together to make a more specific number. For example, what's twenty? Well, it's eighteeen plus two, so it's monja zut (32)! Ten is saija xi (14), forty five is sai'el saija mon (113), four hundred eighteen is sai'aw temel monja xi (1534), etc. Plus, since it's unambiguous which digit is doing what, they can be written in any order! mon sai'el saija is still forty five!
Right, yes. Numbers act grammatically like Measure Words, so they modify a noun without taking the suffix -n. They can also act as nouns themselves though, but you'll probably be able to tell when this is the case.
"I know my four siblings."
"They will speak three words"
"There are 195 countries on Earth"
"You had like one bit of obsidian"
They weren't nouns for any of these. But...
"I had two!"
It's a noun there! Make sure to try and scout out what makes the most sense.
Alright, we have numbers from 0 to 5555 (1295•). What if we wanna go higher than that? Well...
To go higher than that, we will employ a single word: lantu! This word acts as a standalone (not suffix) multiplier, which multiplies the numbers before it by one thousand two hundred ninety six (1,0000 or 6^4). Numbers after it are then unaffected. This is basically the equivalent of "thousand".
"1,0000"
"1,0010"
"1,2345"
"10,0000"
"3000,0003"
Now you can reach 5555,5555 (1.67 million)! But... what if you wanna get higher? Well, you stack lantus upon lantus! lantu also multiplies any lantus and their groups before it by 6^4, which means you can get arbritrarily large numbers! As long as you're ready to stack them.
"1,0000,0000"
"1,0000,0000,0000"
"1,2345,4321,2345,4321 (you don't even wanna know how big this is)"
Now, what if you wanna get..... lower? Sure... but wait! Let's talk about something else first!
What is... seven? Well, it's saija sai, right? Numerically, yes. But certain numbers get a special form of compression in this system, where the digit is "pluralized" (according to Lesson 3 pluralization rules) and then that is suffixed with the bigger number's magnitude. Thus, saija sai becomes sasaija. zutja zut becomes zuzutja. momonja, xixija, tetemja. This is when the -ja digit and the unit digit are the same value. If the -aw digit and -el digit are the same value, the same thing happens. sasai'aw, zuzutaw, momonaw, etc. Notably, this does NOT happen with any other combination, like the -ja digit and the -el digit. Notice how forty five (113) didn't become sasai'el mon, just sai'el saija mon. Keep that in mind. I couldn't really NOT mention this.
Let's get back to fun!
Negative numbers are done with the modifier "joze". mon jozen = -3! You pop it at the end of the number phrase, like all selsimicu modifiers. Most notably, this is used for talking about days in the past. If you wanna say something was "five days ago", you say it was "at negative five days" ("ñawba tem jozen ukeq"). Additionally, the day which is exactly one day in the past (yesterday) is collapsed into "nuzosen". Just so you know.
We covered quite a bit in this lesson, but there's always more! Numbers aren't just there for funsies, after all. What if you want half of something? A sixth? And what kind of things do you want? Seconds? Days? Money? And, of course, what about math??? There's so much stuff to cover that isn't everyone's cup of tea that, if I shoved all of it solely here, this lesson would become simultaneously the longest page on the site AND the most skipped over. So, for the first time ever, we're branching this out to the Additional Resources! If you'd like to learn more, that is. This lesson alone will serve you plenty if you're just going through the language.
So, if you want to hear more about:
Then, by all means, be my guest! Assuming all of the pages are written, that is. Most of them should be, and if not, just give me a bit. But, if you're all satiated on the number front...
Congratulations! You're now one step closer to learning Selsimicu! I'd consider this a successful side stop! It's time to get ready for what's coming next!