Numbers, Days of the Week, Months, Colors
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Numbers: Counting from 1 to 100
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| yīt | ngì | xäm | xï | mˉ | lùk | tīt | bät | giū | sìp |
11 is ten one: sìp-yīt
12 is ten two: sìp-ngì
13 is ten three: sìp-xäm
14 is ten four: sìp-xï
15 is ten five: sìp-mˉ
16 is ten six: sìp-lùk
17 is ten seven: sìp-tīt
18 is ten eight: sìp-bät
19 is ten nine: sìp-giū
20 is two ten: ngì-sìp
21 is two ten one: ngì-sìp-yīt
22 two ten two: ngì-sìp-ngì and so on to 29 ngì-sìp-giū.
So we have 20 to 29 as: ngì-sìp, ngì-sìp-yīt, ngì-sìp-ngì, ngì-sìp-xäm, sìp-yīt-xï, ngì-sìp-mˉ, ngì-sìp-lùk, ngì-sìp-tīt, ngì-sìp-bät, ngì-sìp-giū
30 is three ten, etc. to 99 by following the same pattern. So we have xäm-sìp, xäm-sìp-yīt, xäm-sìp-ngì, xäm-sìp-xäm, jï äo giū-sìp-giū.
100 is one hundred: yīt-bäk
Numbers: Counting from 101 to 1,000,000,000
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101 is one hundred zero (lẽng) one: yīt-bäk-lẽng-yīt
102 is one hundred zero two, etc. to 109: yīt-bäk-lẽng-ngì etc. yīt-bäk-lẽng-giū
110 is one hundred one or one hundred one ten: yīt-bäk-yīt or yīt-bäk-yīt-sìp
111 is one hundred one ten one: yīt-bäk-yīt-sìp-yīt
112 is one hundred one ten two, etc. to 119: : yīt-bäk-yīt-sìp-ngì etc. to yīt-bäk-yīt-sìp-giū
120 is one hundred two ten: yīt-bäk-ngì-sìp
121 is one hundred two ten one, etc. to 999: yīt-bäk-ngì-sìp-yīt etc. to giū-bäk-giū-sìp-giū
1,000 is one thousand: yīt-tëin
1,001 is one thousand zero zero one: yīt-tëin-lẽng-lẽng-yīt
1,002 is one thousand zero zero two, etc. to 1,009: one: yīt-tëin-lẽng-lẽng-ngì etc. to yīt-tëin-lẽng-lẽng-giū
1,010 is one thousand zero one ten: yīt-tëin-lẽng-yīt-sìp
1,011 is one thousand zero one ten one, etc. to 1,099: yīt-tëin-lẽng-yīt-sìp-yīt etc. to yīt-tëin-lẽng-giū-sìp-giū
1,100 is one thousand one hundred: yīt-tëin-yīt-bäk
1,101 is one thousand one hundred zero one, etc. to 9,999: yīt-tëin-yīt-bäk-lẽng-yīt etc. to giū-tëin-giū-bäk-giū- sìp-giū
10,000 is one myriad, i.e. 1 followed by 4 zeros: yīt-màn
10,001 is one myriad zero zero zero one, etc. 99,999: yīt-màn-lẽng-lẽng-lẽng-yīt etc. to giū-màn-giū-tëin-giū bäk-giū-sìp-giū
Note: The English system has 3 digits to a group, while the Chinese system has 4 digits to a group.
For lack of a better modern word, I am using the archaic word myriad to represent 10,000 (written in Chinese as 1,0000).
100,000 is ten myriad: sìp-màn (written in Chinese as 10,0000).
1,000,000 is one hundred myriad: yīt-bäk-màn (written in Chinese as 100,0000).
100,000,000 is yīt-yēik (written in Chinese as 1,0000,0000).
1,000,000,000 is: sìp-yēik (written in Chinese as 10,0000,0000).
Days of the Week
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| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| xëin-kï-yīt | xëin-kï-ngì | xëin-kï-xäm | xëin-kï-xï | xëin-kï-mˉ | xëin-kï-lùk | xëin-kï-ngît-ā |
Months
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| January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
| jëin- ngùt |
ngì- ngùt |
xäm- ngùt |
xï- ngùt |
mˉ- ngùt |
lùk- ngùt |
tīt- ngùt |
bät- ngù |
giū- ngùt |
sìp- ngùt |
sìp-yīt- ngùt |
sìp-ngì- ngùt |
Colors
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| red | orange | yellow | green | blue | violet | white | gray | black |
| hũng-sēik | chãng-sēik | võng-sēik | lùk-sēik | lãm-sēik | dū-sēik | bàk-sēik | föi-sēik | hāk-sēik |
Go to Lesson 1
For Monday, we would say “lie-by-yit”. The version you have sounds more like Cantonese, which sounds like “sin-kay-yit”.
The above uses my version of Chinglish to phonetically pronounce “Toysun wah”.
Thank you for your comment. You can say either 星期一 or 禮拜一 for Monday in Hoisanva, Cantonese, and Mandarin. These two forms can be used interchangeably.
The x sounds like cl? like for xäm sounds like “clam” xï sounds like “Cli” xëin-kï-yīt sounds like “clin-ki-yit” etc
Anyway, Thanks for this Gene.
The x is more like a “thl” sound. It is produced by placing the tip of your tongue behind your top front teeth, as if you were going to make the “th” sound in the English word “thumb.” But, instead of blowing air out the middle of your mouth, push it around the sides of your tongue to produce a sort of “L” sound. Eventually it will sound like “thl.” You will know you’re on the right track when it starts to sound like “fl.” For example the word “xu” (sound like “thlu), should somewhat sound like “flu,” except instead of an “f” sound at the beginning it’s a theta (th) sound.
Hi Benjamin,
Thank you for elucidating this difficult initial phoneme, which I represent with an “x” because it does not have an exact English equivalent. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, it is called the belted l and looks like this,ɬ. I have seen “thl” and “lh” used for this initial phoneme. I chose “x” for two reasons: (1) It is one letter instead of two or three; (2) There are similarities in the “x” used in Mandarin pinyin and the Gene M Chin romanization, Here are a few examples:
洗 xāi xǐ wash
細 xäi xì small
西 xäi xī west
寫 xēh xiě write
些 xëh xiē some
仙 xëin xiān fairy
先 xëin xiān first
姓 xëin xìng surname
性 xëin xìng sex
鮮 xëin xiān fresh
小 xēl xiǎo small
笑 xël xiào laugh
想 xēng xiǎng to think
心 xïm xīn heart
信 xïn xìn letter
新 xïn xīn new
膝 xīp xī knee
鬚 xü xū beard
雪 xūt xuě snow