7.6 Ordinals — first, second, third
7 · Numerals — counting, dates, "the second one" · a plain-language guide to Assyrian (Sureth) grammar
An ordinal is a ranking word ("first, second, third"). Assyrian handles them in two different ways, and the split is easy: "first" is special, everything else follows one formula.
"First" is its own adjective — and it agrees for gender like any adjective (Ch. 6):
| form | |
|---|---|
| first (masc.) | kamaya |
| first (fem.) | kameta |
| first (plural) | kamaye |
It sits after the noun, the normal adjective slot:
- nasha kamaya — "the first man"
- bakhta kameta — "the first woman"
- bakhtate kamaye — "the first women"
(One quirk: unlike most words, the stress lands on the first syllable — KA-maya. And the feminine *kameta moonlights as an abstract noun "the state of being first," which is how you get gahet kameta "the first time" and plashet kameta "the First World War" — literally "the war of first-ness.")*
Every other ordinal = noun + et + the plain counting number. There is no separate word for "second," "third," "fourth" — you just annex the cardinal onto the noun with the little linker -et ("of") you met in the nouns chapter. Literally "the man of two" = "the second man":
| Assyrian | literally | |
|---|---|---|
| the second man | nashet tre | "man-of two" |
| the second woman | bakhtet tre | "woman-of two" |
| the third man | nashet tla | "man-of three" |
| the fourth man | nashet arpa | "man-of four" |
| the fifth man | nashet khamsha | "man-of five" |
With "second" and "third" you'll often hear an extra d- clipped onto the number: nashet d-tre, nashet d-tla — same meaning, just a common variant.
Ordinals in use. The pattern flexing across nouns and genders:
- ktavet tla — "the third book"
- shitet arpa — "the fourth year"
- bakhtatet tre — "the second women"
- nasha kamaya vs. nashet tre — "the first man" vs. "the second man" (see how only "first" gets the special word; "second" falls back to the et-formula)
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