9 Numerals

9.1. Quick Start

Numbers are of two kinds, cardinal and ordinal. Cardinal numbers (such as Modern English one, two . . .) may function either as nouns or as adjectives:

As noun:

Fēower sīðon seofon bēoð eahta and twentiġ

[Four times seven are twenty-eight]

As adjective:

On ānum dæġe bēoð fēower and twentiġ tīda

[In one day there are twenty-four hours]

9.2. Cardinal numbers

Here are the cardinal numbers one-twelve:

The cardinal ān is usually declined as a strong adjective; when it is declined weak (āna) it means 'alone': hē āna læġ 'he lay alone'. The cardinals two and three have their own peculiar inflectional system, shown in table 9.1.

If you substitute a b- for the tw- of twēġen, you will get bēġen (bā, bū, etc.) 'both'.

Cardinals above three occasionally have grammatical endings, but generally are not declined at all. The numbers thirteen-nineteen are made by adding -tīene to the numbers þrēo-nigon: þrēotīene, fēowertīene, etc. From twenty through the sixties, numbers are in the form ān and twentiġ 'twenty-one'.

Starting with seventy, Old English prefixes hund- to the expected forms: hundseofontiġ 'seventy', hundeahtatiġ 'eighty', hundnigontiġ 'ninety' hundtēontiġ or ān hund 'one hundred', hundtwelftiġ or hundtwentiġ 'one hundred and twenty'. These curious forms seem to reflect a number system, common to all the earliest Germanic languages, in which counting proceeded by twelves and sixty was a significant number in much the same way that one hundred is now.

9.3. Ordinal numbers

Here are the ordinal numbers first-twelfth:

For 'first' you may also find ǣrest, but fyrst is not common.

For 'thirteenth' to 'nineteenth', add the element -tēoða in place of ordinal -tīene: for example, þrēotēoða 'thirteen'. For 'twentieth' and higher, add -tigoða, -tegoða or -teogoða: fīfteogoða 'fiftieth', fīf and hundeahtatigoða 'eighty-fifth'.

9.4. On-line exercise