18.2. Lojban numbers

The following cmavo are discussed in this section:

pa

PA

1

re

PA

2

ci

PA

3

vo

PA

4

mu

PA

5

xa

PA

6

ze

PA

7

bi

PA

8

so

PA

9

no

PA

0

The simplest kind of mekso are numbers, which are cmavo or compound cmavo. There are cmavo for each of the 10 decimal digits, and numbers greater than 9 are made by stringing together the cmavo. Some examples:

Example 18.2. 

pa re ci
one two three
123

one hundred and twenty three


Example 18.3. 

pa no
one zero
10

ten


Example 18.4. 

pa re ci vo mu xa ze bi so no
one two three four five six seven eight nine zero
1234567890

one billion, two hundred and thirty-four million, five hundred and sixty-seven thousand, eight hundred and ninety.


Therefore, there are no separate cmavo for ten, hundred, etc.

There is a pattern to the digit cmavo (except for no, 0) which is worth explaining. The cmavo from 1 to 5 end in the vowels a, e, i, o, u respectively; and the cmavo from 6 to 9 likewise end in the vowels a, e, i, and o respectively. None of the digit cmavo begin with the same consonant, to make them easy to tell apart in noisy environments.