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Tags: Multilingual | Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4479 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 25 of 30 21 January 2013 at 1:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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In Italian the equivalent of umpteen would be ennesimo.
This thread seems to have drifted from "umpteen" to "huge number", which (at least in my mind) is something quite different. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4258 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 26 of 30 21 January 2013 at 8:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In Chinese you start with a single digit and work your way up:
一 yī (1) 十 shí (10) 百 bǎi (100) 千 qiān (1,000) 萬 wàn (10,000) 十萬 (100,000) 百萬 (1M) 千萬 (10M) 億 yì (100M) 十億 (1B) 百億 (10B) You can add 幾 jǐ (several) or 數 shù (many) to make a number bigger such as 幾十億 for several Bs & 數百億 for many 10Bs Note: 萬 is written as 万 and 億 written as 亿, 幾 as 几 and 數 as 数 in simplified characters. Go any bigger you can say: 天文數字 (天文数字 simplified char.) tiānwénshùzì for astronomical number / unspecified large number. Edited by shk00design on 21 January 2013 at 8:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5580 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 27 of 30 02 February 2013 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I like the old Japanese word 不可思議 which is given as a number between 10^64 and 10^80, but also means something like unfathomable, unimagineable.
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| overscore Triglot Newbie CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4377 days ago 23 posts - 38 votes Speaks: French*, English, German | Message 28 of 30 03 February 2013 at 2:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think in Quebec French you just say "plein d'fois".
Other funny forms include "trente-douze", with a silent schwa at the end of trente. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4148 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 29 of 30 03 February 2013 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
True. It seems most, if not all of the words describing "uncountable" numbers came originally from sanscrit, were then transcribed into hanzi by the Chinese and only then were absorbed by Japanese buddhist culture. Quoting from what Bao said, there is 不可思議 (fukashigi = 10^64 and 10^80, but also unfathomable, unimagineable), Beneath that, there is: 那由他 (nayuta = 10^60 or 10^72, supposedly 100 million) 阿僧祇 (asougi = 10^56 or 10^64) And finally, 恒河沙 (kougasha = 10^52 or 10^56). Since Ojorolla mentioned it, I decided to look into the ethymology of these words a little bit further. It seems kougasha is derived from the sanscrit word for the River Ganges, and its meaning denotes uncountability as exemplified by the 'innumerable grains of sand at its banks' (the meanings of asougi and nayuta are decidedly less poetic, though, the first meaning "uncountable" and the second "an enourmous number"). Edited by Lakeseayesno on 03 February 2013 at 11:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5023 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 30 of 30 04 February 2013 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
This may be, as Serpent said, a "netspeak" term...? - Or else used in certain other contexts/sub-cultures? I haven't ever previously heard of "9000" used in this way. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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