100516 Counting the old way - Pilipino Express

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Paul Morrow • In Other Words • The Pilipino Express • May 16 - 31, 20102simple matter to attach the basicnumerals (one to nine) to whatevermultiple of ten, hundred, thousand orwhatever large sum we need. So,when we add one to 20, we simplysay twenty-one in English, vingt et unin French, veintiuno in Spanish anddalawampu’t isa in Filipino.This seems like the obvious way tocount in any language but it is not –and it was not always like this in Tagalogeither. Even though Tagalog hasits own words for numbers, the Spanishlanguage influenced the way wecount today in Filipino.In the old Tagalog counting system,the numerals from one to 20 were thesame as they are today and so waseach multiple of ten, hundred, thousandand million. That is to say, dalawampu= 20, tatlong daan = 300, apatna libo = 4000, etc.However, the numerals in betweenthe zeros were very different. Thenumber 21, for example, was not dalawampu’tisa as we’d expect; it wasmaikatlong isa, meaning “one in thethird set of ten.” The first set of tenbeing zero to nine, the second set 10to 19 and the third set 20 to 29.The prefix maika- always referred tothe next highest set of ten, hundred,thousand, etc. For example, maikapatdalawa meant “two in the fourth [setof ten]” or 32. This pattern continueduntil maikaraan siyam, “nine in the100 set”, which meant 99.Labí [in excess] was used for thenumbers between 10 and 20, just liketoday. When we say the number 11,labing isa, it means “one in excess often,” but we don’t say the word pu[ten] because it is understood. Thedifference in the old Tagalog methodwas that labí was also used consistentlyfor the first set of numbersabove one hundred, one thousand,one laksa (10,000), one yuta(100,000) and one million. (See thechart of old numbers.)New Tagalog numeralsApparently, some Filipinos in theearly colonial period were eager tolearn Spanish. This is why TomásPinpin wrote his manual in 1610.Eventually they borrowed not onlymany Spanish words and numerals,but they also adapted the Spanishmethod of counting to the Tagalognumerals.It is possible that it was not so muchthe Spanish language that influencedTagalog counting as much as it wasthe digits that the Spaniards used.Pre-Hispanic people of the Philippinesdid not have digits like 1, 2, 3,etc., in their baybayin writing system.They just spelled out their numeralsthe same as words.Tomás Pinpin took great pains toexplain to his readers what we call theArabic numerals (though they actuallyoriginated in India). When he explainedthat the meaning of a digitdepends on its position in a string ofdigits, Pinpin illustrated his point withexamples of large numbers. In thesenumbers he stated the value of eachdigit separately rather than just writingout the Tagalog phrase for the completenumber. This way of learning theHindu-Arabic digits might have affectedthe way that Tagalogs countedall the numbers higher than twenty.Pinpin wrote:Datapoua’t con ang sulat ay 1234 samacatouid ay labi sa libo dalauangdaan, at maycapat apat, ay ano yaongna onang letra dili caya sang libo;yayamang 1 nga at may casonod pangtatlo at yaong icalaua, dili caya dalauangdaan; yayamang 2 nga at maycasonod pang dalaua, at yaong icatlo’ydili caya tatlong pouo: yayamang3 nga at may casonod pang isa, atyaong uacas ay dili caya apat na lamang;yayamang 4 nga at uala nangcasonod.[However, if 1234 is written, it istherefore one thousand, two hundredand thirty-four and what is that firstletter [meaning digit] but one thousandbecause it is a 1 and it is followedby three more [digits] and thatsecond [digit] is none other than twohundred because it is a 2 with twomore [digits] following it and thatthird [digit] is but thirty because it is a3 followed by one more [digit] andthat last one is only four because it is a4 and nothing more follows it.]The old way is forgottenIt is hard to imagine how the ancientTagalogs could do any calculations ortransactions with the old system ofnumerals, especially since they didn’thave digits – but apparently, theymanaged. Jean-Paul Potet wrote thefollowing in his 1992 article:My interpretation is that computationand numerical expressions wereentirely separated. The former dependedon an abacus drawn with astick on the ground, which, for all itsThe Old TagalogCounting SystemNumbers 1–20 are the same asmodern Filipino.1, 2, 3, etc…….…...... isa, dalawa, tatlo11, 12 ..…........ labing isa, labindalawa20 .........……....................... dalawampu21 ..........…........…......... maikatlong isa22 .............….......... maikatlong dalawa30 ..................…….................... tatlumpu31 ...............…....…............ maikapat isa80 ...................…….................. walumpu81 ...................……....... maikasiyam isa90 .............................….......... siyamnapu99 ............................. maikaraang siyam100 ........................................ isang daan101 ............................... labi sa raang isa111 ..…............ labi sa raang labing isa121 ......... labi sa raang maikatlong isa200 ................................. dalawang daan201 ..................... maikatlong daang isa300 ...................................... tatlong daan301 .................... maikapat na raang isa1000 ......................................... isang libo1001 ............................ labi sa libong isa2000 ................................. dalawang libo2001 ................... maikatlong libong isa9000 ................................... siyam na libo9001 ........................... maikalaksang isa10,000 ................................... isang laksa10,011 .......... labi sa laksang labing isa20,000 ........................... dalawang laksa22,000 maikatlong laksang dalawang libo90,000 ............................. siyam na laksa90,001 ......................... maikayutang isa100,000 ................................... isang yuta100,001 ...................... labi sa yutang isa200,000 .......................... dalawang yuta200,001 ..............maikatlong yutang isa1,000,000 ............. isang angaw-angawcrudeness, was in no way inferior toany figure drawn on a blackboardby a mathematics teacher. The use ofsmall pebbles as tokens should notdeter us from concluding that thistechnique must have been fairlysophisticated; after all, didn’t calculus[reckoning] mean “small pebbles”in Latin? Once the result wasobtained in this silent (?) way, it wasread aloud and/or taken down intheir syllabic script.Even so, it seems that the new Tagalognumerals, which we use today,were adopted quite early in the colonialera. The archive at the Universityof Santo Tomas has two old bills ofsale written in the baybayin script in1613 and 1625. The dates in thesedocuments were written using the newnumerical expressions. In the 1625

Paul Morrow • In Other Words • The Pilipino Express • May 16 - 31, 20103document the date was a mixture ofthe old and new systems. The year1625 was written [isang] libo, animna raang taon, maikatlong limangtaon, but in strict ancient Tagalogcounting, this number would havebeen expressed, labi sa libong maikapitongraang maikatlong lima.(These two baybayin documents canbe seen on my web site, Sarisari etc.)Sources:Eventually the old way of countingwas forgotten. In 1745, one Spanishfriar, Sebastian Totanes, explained theold Tagalog counting system in hisArte de la Lengua Tagala, after whichhe added the comment, “now, due tocommunication with Spaniards, manyof them [the Tagalogs] count like us,and so they say: ‘Dalawampu’t isa’,twenty-one. ‘Sangdaan at lima,’ onehundred five. ‘Limang daang dalawampu’tlima,’ five hundred andtwenty-five, and it is like that with theother numbers.”E-mail the author at:feedback@pilipino-express.com orvisit www.mts.net/~pmorrow formore Filipino history and language.Dáluz, Eusebio T. (1915) Filipino-English Vocabulary with practical examples of Filipino and English grammars.Laktaw, Pedro Serrano (1889) Diccionario Hispano-Tagalog.Laktaw, Pedro Serrano (1914) Diccionario Tagálog-Hispano.Noceda, Juan de & San Lucar, Pedro de (1754) Vocabulario de la lengua tagala. Manila 1860.Pinpin, Tomas (1610), Librong Pagaaralan nang manga Tagalog nang uicang Castilla. Manila 1910.Potet, Jean Paul (1992). Numerical Expressions in Tagalog. (Thanks to the author for kindly sharing excerpts fromhis revised, expanded and unpublished book based on his article.)Rafael, Vicente L. (1988) Contracting Colonialism - Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society underSpanish Rule.San Agustin, Gaspar de (1703) Compendio del Arte de la Lengua Tagala. Manila 1879.Totanes, Sebastian de (1745) Arte de la Lengua Tagala y Manual Tagalog. Binondo 1865.Woods, Damon L. (1992) Tomás Pinpin and the Literate Indio: Tagalog Writing in the Early Spanish Philippines.