Bushell's 1896 decipherment of Tangut characters

Tangut numerals are characters used to denote

number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...

s in the

Tangut script The Tangut script ( Tangut: ; ) was a logographic writing system, used for writing the extinct Tangut language of the Western Xia dynasty. According to the latest count, 5863 Tangut characters are known, excluding variants. The Tangut character ...

, which was used for writing the

Tangut language Tangut (Tangut: ; ) is an extinct language in the Sino-Tibetan language family. Tangut was one of the official languages of the Western Xia dynasty, founded by the Tangut people in northwestern China. The Western Xia was annihilated by the Mongo ...

under the

Western Xia The Western Xia or the Xi Xia (), officially the Great Xia (), also known as the Tangut Empire, and known as ''Mi-nyak''Stein (1972), pp. 70–71. to the Tanguts and Tibetans, was a Tangut-led Buddhist imperial dynasty of China tha ...

regime (1038–1227) and during the subsequent

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...

(1271–1368). Tangut numerals are written in the same format as Chinese numerals. There is an ordinary set of digits that is used for writing numbers within Tangut text (for example, chapter numbers and dates) in manuscripts and printed books, as well as for engraving on monumental inscriptions on stone. There are also two additional sets of number characters used for special purposes. Page numbers in printed books dating from the Western Xia period and the Yuan dynasty are often written using Chinese numerals. The latest surviving example of Tangut numerals occur on the Tangut dharani pillars which were erected in Baoding on the 10th month of the 15th year of the Hongzhi era of the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

, which corresponds to 1502.

Cardinal numbers

The characters used to write ordinary

cardinal number In mathematics, cardinal numbers, or cardinals for short, are a generalization of the natural numbers used to measure the cardinality (size) of sets. The cardinality of a finite set is a natural number: the number of elements in the set. Th ...

s are listed below. There are two different words for "ten": *gha is the normal word, but *sha is sometimes used, especially for the number of days in dates, e.g. (gha lhi sha ny) "10th day of the 10th month". Multiple-digit numbers are constructed using a similar method to that for Chinese and Japanese numerals.

Ordinal numbers

Ordinal number In set theory, an ordinal number, or ordinal, is a generalization of ordinal numerals (first, second, th, etc.) aimed to extend enumeration to infinite sets. A finite set can be enumerated by successively labeling each element with the least n ...

s are formed by adding the suffix *tsew to the cardinal number, for example (so tsew) "third" and (ny gha tsew) "twentieth". The word (phu tsew) may be used for "first", although (lew tsew) is also found.

Fractions

The character *khwy is used for

one half One half ( : halves) is the irreducible fraction resulting from dividing one by two or the fraction resulting from dividing any number by its double. Multiplication by one half is equivalent to division by two, or "halving"; conversely, d ...

. For more complex fractions, the formula "''n'' artsout of ''d'' parts" is used, where ''n'' is the

numerator A fraction (from la, fractus, "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight ...

and ''d'' is the denominator, and the denominator is specified first. This corresponds to the structure for fractions in Chinese, for example Tangut (so pha kha lew) "one third" corresponds to Chinese 三分之一　(sān fēn zhī yī) "one third".

Special numbers

In addition to the normal set of cardinal numbers, there is an additional set of characters used for the numbers 2 through 7 in some circumstances. These numbers are only used in a few certain words, as well as in special month names that are used in a Tangut ode entitled ''Poem on Pleasure of Every Month''.

Ksenia Kepping Ksenia Borisovna Kepping (russian: Ксе́ния Бори́совна Ке́пинг, , 7 February 1937 – 13 December 2002) was a Russian Tangutologist, known principally for her study of Tangut (or Mi-nia) grammar. She is also known for ...

considers this and other odes in the same collection (dated 1185) to be written in a special ritual language, using vocabulary which is not normally used in the common Tangut language. There is also a special set of

filiation Filiation is the legal term for the recognized legal status of the relationship between family members, or more specifically the legal relationship between parent and child. As described by the Government of Quebec: Filiation is the relationship ...

characters for the numbers 2 through 8 which are used exclusively to indicate the relative seniority of sons, where the number is followed by the word *ew "son". The numbers from 2 to 7 are phonetically identical (2, 4, 6, 7) or phonetically very close (3, 5) to the corresponding ritual numbers used in the ''Poem on Pleasure of Every Month'', but the character for 8 is phonetically identical to the normal character for 8. Unlike the ordinary Tangut numbers, which are closely cognate to the numbers used in other

Tibeto-Burman languages The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak ...

such as

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

and Nuosu, the ritual and filiation numbers do not appear to be related to numbers in any other language. Moreover, the characters for 4 and 7 are homophones in both the ritual and filiation series, which is implausible for a spoken language. The ritual numbers are used in the following words, which are all related to

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...

: * (zhu lo) "two fish" (i.e.

pisces Pisces may refer to: * Pisces, an obsolete (because of land vertebrates) taxonomic superclass including all fish * Pisces (astrology), an astrological sign * Pisces (constellation), a constellation **Pisces Overdensity, an overdensity of stars in ...

) * (rer u) "three storehouses" (i.e. the ''

tripiṭaka ''Tipiṭaka'' () or ''Tripiṭaka'' () or ''තිපිටක'' (), meaning "Triple Basket", is the traditional term for ancient collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures. The Pāli Canon maintained by the Theravāda tradition in ...

'') * (ngwyr ka) "four stringed-instrument" (i.e. the

pipa The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets rang ...

) * (chyr nir ngyr) "Five Platforms Mountain" (i.e. the Western Xia equivalent of the sacred

Mount Wutai Mount Wutai, also known by its Chinese name Wutaishan and as is a sacred Buddhist site at the headwaters of the Qingshui in Shanxi Province, China. Its central area is surrounded by a cluster of flat-topped peaks roughly corresponding to the c ...

, which was located in the

Helan Mountains The Helan Mountains, frequently called Alashan Mountains in older sources, are an isolated desert mountain range forming the border of Inner Mongolia's Alxa League and Ningxia. They run north-south parallel to the north-flowing Yellow River in ...

) * (ngwyr ngewr) "seven sounds" (i.e. seven claps of thunder or bursts of music)

Dates

Tangut numbers are used to denote the year, month and day in date expressions. A number followed by the character *kew "year" indicates the year of the specified era, for example (tshwu wu gha chhiw kew) means the 16th year of the Qianyou era (i.e. 1185). Lunar months are designated as a number followed by *lhi "moon, month", except that there are special words for the first and last month. An

intercalary month Intercalation or embolism in timekeeping is the insertion of a leap day, week, or month into some calendar years to make the calendar follow the seasons or moon phases. Lunisolar calendars may require intercalations of both days and months. So ...

is indicated by putting the character *lhu in front of the month name, for example (lhu rer lhi) "intercalary 12th month). There are also special month names used in the ritual language of the ''Poem on Pleasure of Every Month''. A number followed by the character *ny "day" indicates the day of the month, for example (sha lhi sha gy ny) "19th day of the 7th month".

Footnotes

References

* * * {{Citation , last1=Shi , first1=Jinbo , authorlink1=Shi Jinbo , last2=Bai , first2=Bin , title=Mingdai Xixiawen jingjuan he shichuang chutan (明代西夏文經卷和石幢初探) , trans-title=Preliminary investigations into Ming dynasty Tangut sutras and stone dhanari columns revisited , journal=Kaogu Xuebao , year=1977 , issue=1 , pages=143–164 Numerals Tangut script