Page:An Ainu-English-Japanese dictionary (including a grammar of the Ainu language).djvu/654

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Twenty, more literally a “score,” is the highest unit ever present to the Ainu mind when counting. Thus forty is “two score” ; sixty is “three score” ; eighty is “four score” ; and a hundred is “five score”.

Numbers may be framed by means of scores to an indefinite extent; but in actual practice, the numbers are rarely, if ever, met with. At the present day, the simpler Japanese method of numeration is rapidly supplanting the cumbrous native system.

In order to arrive at a clear comprehension of the Ainu system of counting, the student must carefully note the following two particulars:—

(a.)—The word commonly means, “excess,” “redundance;” but with the numerals it signifies, ”addition,” “to add to.” It is always placed after the number which is conceived of as added.

(b.)—The particle signifies “to subtract,” “to take away from,” and follows the number which is supposed to be taken away. Care must therefore be taken not to confound the particle with the which is used as a preposition, and which means, “to,” “towards.” Thus  is, “two added to ten,” i.e. 12; and, is “nine added to, ten taken from, two score;” and so on.

Note also the following expressions:—, “one and a half;”, “two and a half;” , “three and a half.”