Korean edit

Korean numbers (edit)
 ←  10  ←  19 20 30  → 
2
    Native isol.: 스물 (seumul)
    Native attr.: 스무 (seumu)
    Sino-Korean: 이십 (isip)
    Hanja: 二十

Etymology edit

First attested in the Worin seokbo (月印釋譜 / 월인석보), 1459, as Middle Korean 스믏 (Yale: sumulh).

Pronunciation edit

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?seumul
Revised Romanization (translit.)?seumul
McCune–Reischauer?sŭmul
Yale Romanization?sumul

South Gyeongsang (Busan) pitch accent: 스물의 / 스물에 / 스물까지

Syllables in red take high pitch. This word always takes high pitch on both syllables, and lowers the pitch of subsequent suffixes.

Numeral edit

스물 (seumul)

  1. (native numeral) twenty (independently, without a classifier)
    Synonyms: 스무 (seumu, twenty, determiner numeral before a noun or classifier), 이십(二十) (isip( 二十 ), twenty, Sino-Korean numeral)

Usage notes edit

In modern Korean, numbers are usually written in Arabic numerals.

The Korean language has two sets of numerals: a native set of numerals inherited from Old Korean, and a Sino-Korean set which was borrowed from Middle Chinese in the first millennium C.E.

Native classifiers take native numerals.

Some Sino-Korean classifiers take native numerals, others take Sino-Korean numerals, while yet others take both.

Recently loaned classifiers generally take Sino-Korean numerals.

For many terms, a native numeral has a quantifying sense, whereas a Sino-Korean numeral has a sense of labeling.

  • 반(班) (se ban, three school classes, native numeral)
  • 반(班) (sam ban, Class Number Three, Sino-Korean numeral)

When used in isolation, native numerals refer to objects of that number and are used in counting and quantifying, whereas Sino-Korean numerals refer to the numbers in a more mathematical sense.

  • 하나 주세 (hana-man deo juse-yo, Could you give me just one more, please, native numeral)
  • 더하기 ? (il deohagi ir-eun?, What's one plus one?, Sino-Korean numeral)

While older stages of Korean had native numerals up to the thousands, native numerals currently exist only up to ninety-nine, and Sino-Korean is used for all higher numbers. There is also a tendency—particularly among younger speakers—to uniformly use Sino-Korean numerals for the higher tens as well, so that native numerals such as 일흔 (ilheun, “seventy”) or 아흔 (aheun, “ninety”) are becoming less common.