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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” (tu hot ne); sixty is “three score” (re hot ne); eighty is “four score” (ine hot ne); and a hundred is “five score” (ashikne hot ne).
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 ikashima 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 e 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 e which is used as a preposition, and which means, “to,” “towards.” Thus tu ikashima wa(n) is, “two added to ten,” i.e. 12; and shinepe-san ikashima, wan e, tu hot ne, is “nine added to, ten taken from, two score;” and so on.
Note also the following expressions:—E-tup, “one and a half;” e-rep, “two and a half;” e-inep, “three and a half.”
