ABSTRACT
Since the decimal number system originated in North India, you can expect the names for the Panjabi numbers to be in the form of ‘multiple of ten plus a number smaller than ten’ as you have in English after 20. Before 20 it is the opposite in English. You have ‘twentyfour’ (20+4) but ‘eighteen’, which may have originated as ‘eight plus ten’ (8+10). The names for the numbers in Panjabi seem to have originated in the same way, but with some differences. They are all in the pattern of ‘eight plus ten’ except those ending with 9. For example, 24 is literally ‘four plus twenty’, but 29 literally means ‘below 30’ or ‘rising on to 30’. Since these names originated many centuries ago, phonetic changes have invariably changed their pronunciation, but have not entirely obscured their origin. cOvI ca˜vÊ still sounds somewhat like car-vIh cÉr-vÊh ‘fourtwenty’.
