7.1 The core numbers 1–10
7 · Numerals — counting, dates, "the second one" · a plain-language guide to Assyrian (Sureth) grammar
These are the foundation. They never inflect — no masculine/feminine forms, no plural, just one shape each:
| Assyrian | Assyrian | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | sipar | 6 | eshta |
| 1 | kha | 7 | shavva |
| 2 | tre | 8 | tmanya |
| 3 | tla | 9 | echcha |
| 4 | arpa | 10 | esra |
| 5 | khamsha |
A few notes that pay off later:
- kha "one" doubles as "a." Just like English one and a are cousins, kha is also the everyday indefinite article. kha nasha = "a man / one man," kha bakhta = "a woman." You met this back in the nouns chapter — now you know it's simply the number 1.
- tla, arpa, eshta, shavva, echcha, esra carry the heavy/throaty quality in careful speech (Khan writes them with a +). You don't need to mark it in writing; it just makes the vowel sound a little deeper and further back in the mouth. It never changes the meaning.
- The counted noun goes plural, and the number comes first: tla bate "three houses," arpa nashe "four men." (Fuller word-order details live in the Syntax chapter — for now: number, then plural noun.)
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