Yoruba edit

Etymology edit

Yoruba numbers (edit)
10
[a], [b] ←  0 1 2  →  10  → 
    Cardinal: ọ̀kan, ení
    Counting: oókan
    Adjectival: kan, méní
    Ordinal: kìíní, kìn-ín-ní
    Adverbial: ẹ̀ẹ̀kan
    Distributive: ọ̀kọ̀ọ̀kan
    Collective: ọ̀kọ̀ọ̀kan

Derived from owó (cowrie) +‎ ọ̀kan (one).

Pronunciation edit

Numeral edit

oókan

  1. one (used when counting)
    Oókan, eéjì, ẹẹ́ta, ẹẹ́rin, aárùn-ún, ẹẹ́fà...
    One, two, three, four, five, six...
    Eélòó ni oókan àti oókan? — Oókan àti oókan jẹ́ eéjì.
    How much is one plus one? — One plus one equals two.

Noun edit

oókan

  1. kobo or cent
    • 2008 December 19, Yiwola Awoyale, Global Yoruba Lexical Database v. 1.0[1], number LDC2008L03, Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium, →DOI, →ISBN:
      Ebi kò mọ̀ pé oókan kò sí lọ́wọ́, bí ojúmọ́ bá ti mọ́, ebi a máa pani
      Hunger does not know that one is in penury, each waking day, one is bound to be hungry
      proverb on the inevitability of hunger
  2. center
    • 2008 December 19, Yiwola Awoyale, quoting C. L. Adéoyè, Àṣà àti Ìṣe Yoruba[2], number LDC2008L03, 1979, Ibadan: Oxford University Press, page 324, quoted in Global Yoruba Lexical Database v. 1.0, Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium, →DOI, →ISBN:
      Ṣẹ́ aṣọ funfun po dé oókan àyà òkú
      Fold over the white cloth to reach the center of the corpse's chest