नम्बर / Sankhyaa

There is a reason why I wrote 'number' in Nepali and 'sankhyaa' in English and not vice-versa.

That's because I have been hearing people express numbers in interesting ways throughout Kathmandu.

Last week, I was walking through Baneshwor chowk. If you have ever been there, you know how crowded it gets, especially during the evenings. I was trying to navigate my way out of the crowd when I heard a lemon salesman shout out, "एक सय टोन्टी रुपैया, एक सय टोन्टी रुपैया" (ek saya twanti rupaiya, ek saya twanti rupaiya = one hundred ‘twenty’ rupees)

This amalgamation of Nepali and English expression of number in a single sentence was quite interesting, but it also happens all the time in varying circumstance.

How often do the younger generation as well as non-Nepali speakers frown when they hear the phrase "अन्ठानब्बे एकचालिस..." (9841) because, to be quite frank, Nepali numbers and the way we express them using words have a very flimsy logic to them. That's why listeners choose to rather report back to these expressions in English just to double-check whether they got it correct or not.

Nepali numbers and their word-based equivalence do not come in a clear-cut pattern. Thirty one is एक्तिस (30) which comes from एक (1) + तिस (30) but how do we analyze एकाउन्न (51). एक (1) + what? Similarly, we often use variations of त to express three - तेइस (23), त्रिपन्न (53), and तिरासी (83), but you can imagine how difficult it is for a new learner to remember whether its ते, त्रि, or ति. There are more examples, but you get it.

That's why it's quite natural for bilingual and bilingual+ individuals to prefer using English numbers and words associated with them. What do you think?