Korean edit

Korean numbers (edit)
 ←  70 80 90  → 
8
    Native isol.: 여든 (yeodeun)
    Native attr.: 여든 (yeodeun)
    Sino-Korean: 팔십 (palsip)
    Hanja: 八十

Etymology edit

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

Pronunciation edit

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?yeodeun
Revised Romanization (translit.)?yeodeun
McCune–Reischauer?yŏdŭn
Yale Romanization?yetun

Numeral edit

여든 (yeodeun)

  1. (native numeral, possibly dated) eighty
    Synonym: 팔십(八十) (palsip, eighty, 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.