words for numbers in Slavic languages

Like English, the Slavic languages derive most of their words for integers from a few words for the numbers 1 to 9 and selected powers of 10.

Also like English, the teens get their own irregular words which don’t follow the pattern established for . However, these words are irregular in different ways among the different languages. Note also the special Russian word for 40, whereas most of the other Slavic languages use a word which is obviously “four tens.”

The Slavic languages developed from Old Russian and Church Slavonic, adapting the Greek alphabet for their own purposes, coming up with the Cyrillic alphabet.

Modern Russian is of course written in the Cyrillic alphabet, which is still used for some of the other slavic languages. PlanetMath has facilities for including Russian text in entries, however, for the sake of easier comparison, I’ve decided to transliterate the Russian words to the Roman alphabet. Note however that I’ve tried to do so as a speaker of some Slavic language would do, and not as an English-speaker.

If it’s not too much of a digression, I’d like to mention that the Slavic languages using the Roman alphabet are fairly consistent about using “c” only for a “ts” sound (any other sound being indicated by the addition of a diacritical mark). The cited books have much more detailed information on pronunciation than can be given here.

In the following table, the first word given is the cardinal (e.g., “twelve”), and if a second word is given, it’s the ordinal (e.g., “twelfth”).

$n$	Russian (translit.)	Polish	Serbo-Croat	Slovene
0	nul’	zero	nula	nič
1	odín, perviy	jeden, pierwszy	jedan, prvi	ena, prvi
2	dva, vtoróy	dwa, drugi	dva, drugi	dva, drugi
3	tri, trétiy	trzy, trzecy	tri, treći	tri, tretje
4	četire, četvyortiy	cztery, czwarty	četiri, četvrti	štiri, četrti
5	pyat’, pyatiy	piȩć, pia̧ty	pet, peti	pet, peti
6	šest’, šestóy	sześć, szósty	šest, šesti	šest, šesti
7	sem’, sedimóy	siedem, siódmy	sedam, sedmi	sedem, sedmi
8	vosém’, vosemóy	osiem, ósmy	osam, osmi	osem, osmi
9	devyat’, devyatiy	dziewiȩć, dziewia̧ty	devet, deveti	devet, deveti
10	desyat’, desyatiy	dziesiȩć, dziesia̧ty	deset, deseti	deset, deseti
11	odinnadcat’, odinnadcatiy	jedenaście, jedenasty	jedanaest, jedanaesti	enajst, enajsti
12	dvenádcat’, dvenádcatiy	dwanaście, dwunasty	dvanaest, dvanaesti	dvanajst, dvanajsti
13	trinádcat’, trinádcatiy	trzynaście, trzynasty	trinaest, trinaesti	trinajst, trinajsti
14	četirnádcat’, četirnádcatiy	czternaście, czternasty	četrnaest, četrnaesti	štirinajst, štirinajsti
15	pyatnádcat’, pyatnádcatiy	piȩtnaście, piȩtnaśty	petnaest, petnaesti	petnajst, petnajsti
16	šestnádcat’, šestnádcatiy	szesnaście, szesnasty	šestnaest, šestnaesti	šestnajst, šestnajsti
17	semnádcat’, semnádcatiy	siedemnaście, siedemnasty	sedamnaest, sedamnaesti	sedemnajst, sedemnajsti
18	vosemnádcat’, vosemnádcatiy	osiemnaście, osiemnasty	osemnaest, osemnaesti	osemnajst, osemnajsti
19	devyatnádcat’, devyatnádcatiy	dziewiȩtnaście, dziewiȩtnaśty	devetnaest, devetnaesti	devetnajst, devetnajsti
20	dvadcat’, dvadcátiy	dwadzieścia, dwudziesty	dvadeset, dvadeseti	dvajdeset, dvajdeseti
21	dvadcat’ odín	dwaddzieścia jeden, , dwudziesty pierwszy	dvadeset i jedan	enaindvajdeset
30	tridcat’, tridcatiy	trzydzieści, trzydziesty	trideset, trideseti	trideset
40	sorok, sorokovóy	czterdzieści, czterdziesty	četrdeset, četrdeseti	štirideset
50	pyat’desyat’	piȩćdziesia̧t, piȩćdziesia̧t	pedeset	petdeset
60	šest’desyat	sześćdziesia̧t, sześćdziesia̧ty	šezdeset	šestdeset
70	sem’desyat	siedemdziesia̧t, siedemdziesia̧ty	sedamdeset	sedemdeset
80	vocem’desyat	osiemdziesia̧t, osiemdziesia̧ty	osamdeset	osemdeset
90	devyanósto	dziewiȩćdziesia̧t, dziewiȩćdziesia̧t	devedeset	devetdeset
100	sto	sto, setny	sto, stoci	sto, stoti
200	dvesti	dwieście, dwusetny	dvesta	dvesto
300	trista	trzyście, trzysetny	trista	tristo
1000	tisyača	tysia̧c, tysiȩczny	hiljada, hiljaditi	tisoč
2000	dve tisyači	dwatysia̧ce	dve hiljade
1000000	millión	milion	milijun	milijon

In Serbo-Croat, they say “comma” where we would say “point,” reflecting the European preference for the decimal comma instead of our decimal point. For example, 3.5 = “tri koma pet.” The fractions in Serbo-Croat are as irregular as in most other languages. A few examples:

$\frac{1}{2}$	polovina
$\frac{1}{3}$	trećine
$\frac{1}{4}$	četrvina
$\frac{1}{100}$	stotinka

Title	words for numbers in Slavic languages
Canonical name	WordsForNumbersInSlavicLanguages
Date of creation	2013-03-22 17:33:04
Last modified on	2013-03-22 17:33:04
Owner	PrimeFan (13766)
Last modified by	PrimeFan (13766)
Numerical id	8
Author	PrimeFan (13766)
Entry type	Topic
Classification	msc 00A99