Numbers in Dogon

Christopher Culy
Linguistics Department
The University of Iowa

The Dogon language exemplified here is Donno SO. Note that E is the sound "eh" and O is the sound "aw".

Translate a number into Dogon:

Enter a number:

The number system is a mixture of base 10 and base 8. Numbers go from 1-10, 10-80, 80-800, as can be seen from the charts below.


Numbers 1-30
1 ti 11 pEl-gu turu-gu sigE 21 pEnEy turu sigE
2 lEy 12 pEl-gu lEy-gu sigE 22 pEnEy lEy sigE
3 taandu 13 pEl-gu taandu-gu sigE 23 pEnEy taandu sigE
4 naay 14 pEl-gu naay-gu sigE 24 pEnEy naay sigE
5 nnO 15 pEl-gu nnO-gu sigE 25 pEnEy nnO sigE
6 kulei 16 pEl-gu kulei-gu sigE 26 pEnEy kulei sigE
7 sOy 17 pEl-gu sOy-gu sigE 27 pEnEy sOy sigE
8 gagara 18 pEl-gu gagaraw sigE 28 pEnEy gagara sigE
9 tugO 19 pEl-gu tugOw sigE 29 pEnEy tugO sigE
10 pEl 20 pEnEy 30 pEtaandu

Numbers 10-7200
10 pEl 80 sun 800 mundyu
20 pEnEy 160 sun lEy 1600 mundyu lEy
30 pEtaandu 240 sun taandu 2400 mundyu taandu
40 pEnaay 320 sun naay 3200 mundyu naay
50 pEnnO 400 sun nnO 4000 mundyu nnO
60 pEkulei 480 sun kulei 4800 mundyu kulei
70 pEsOy 560 sun sOy 5600 mundyu sOy
80 sun 640 sun gagara 6400 mundyu gagara
90 sun le pEl 720 sun tugO 7200 mundyu tugO

Numbers 100-9000
100 = 80+20 sun le pEnEy 1000 = 800+200 mundyu sun lEy pEnaay
200 = 160+40 sun lEy pEnaay 2000 = 1600+400 mundyu lEy sun nnO
300 = 240+60 sun taandu pEkulei 3000 = 2400+600 mundyu taandu sun sOy pEnaay
400 sun nnO 4000 mundyu nnO
500 = 480+20 sun kulei pEnEy 5000 = 4800+200 mundyu kulei sun lEy pEnaay
600 = 560+40 sun sOy pEnaay 6000 = 5600+400 mundyu sOy sun nnO
700 = 640 + 60 sun gagara pEkulei 7000 = 6400 + 600 mundyu gagara sun sOy pEnaay
800 mundyu 8000 mundyu pEl
900 = 800+100 mundyu sun le pEnEy 9000 = 8800+200 mundyu pEl-gu turu-gu sige sun lEy pEnaay

In some Dogon languages, the number system is being re-evaluated to be a pure base 10 system, as seen below. The bases, sun and munju, take on the values 100 and 1000 instead of 80 and 800, respectively. To clarify which counting system is being used, a qualifier can be added to the bases. For example in TOrO SO, 80 = dogo sun (dogo = Dogon), 100 = amasara sun (amasara = 'evil god'); 800 = dogo munju, 1000 amasara munju. tEmEdErE is a borrowing from Fula (100).


Newer numbers
80 pEl gagara 800 sun gagara
90 pEl tugO 900 sun tugO
100 sun or tEmEdErE 1000 munju
200 sun lEy or tEmEdErE lEy 2000 munju lEy
etc. etc.

To Faculty: Culy
Revised 24 September 1996 Copyright 1996 Christopher Culy All rights reserved.

Send comments to:

Christopher Culy chris-culy@uiowa.edu