Korean

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Korean numbers (edit)
 ←  80 90
9
    Native isol.: 아흔 (aheun)
    Native attr.: 아흔 (aheun)
    Sino-Korean: 구십 (gusip)
    Hanja: 九十

Etymology

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First attested in the Seokbo sangjeol (釋譜詳節 / 석보상절), 1447, as Middle Korean 아ᄒᆞᆫ (Yale: ahon).

Pronunciation

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Romanizations
Revised Romanization?aheun
Revised Romanization (translit.)?aheun
McCune–Reischauer?ahŭn
Yale Romanization?ahun

Numeral

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아흔 (aheun)

  1. (native numeral, possibly dated) ninety
    Synonym: 구십(九十) (ninety, Sino-Korean numeral)

Usage notes

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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.