The Hokkien language (incl. Taiwanese) has two regularly used sets of numerals, a more ancient colloquial/vernacular or native Hokkien system and a literary system.
The more ancient vernacular numerals are the native numbers of Hokkien that trace back to Hokkien's origins itself, which is a Coastal Min language that spread southwest across the coast of Fujian from around the Min River. It was brought by the earliest Min-speaking Han Chinese settlers from the time of the Jin dynasty (266âÂÂ420) settling the area around the Jin River around 284 AD. Meanwhile, the literary system came from Tang-era Classical Chinese/Middle Chinese that was loaned in for formal reading use during medieval times (e.g. Tang, Min, Southern Tang, Song dynasty times), similar to the Sino-Xenic pronunciations in Japanese, Okinawan, Korean, Jeju, Vietnamese, etc, but within the Sinitic family to the Min group.
Literary and colloquial systems are not totally mutually independent; they are sometimes mixed used. The specific pronunciation of each number depends on the specific dialect of Hokkien (e.g. Amoy-Tong'an, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Longyan, etc.), which each dialect may either share or use slightly different phonemes and tones on how each dialect may properly count numbers in the Hokkien language for both vernacular and literary systems.
For cardinal numbers usage, the colloquial system is usually used. For example, one should use chiÃÂt ê lâng for the meaning of "a person" instead of using *it ê lâng. However, a notable exceptions for numerals 1 and 2 appears while the number is greater than 10.
For "few hundred and ten, twenty or thirty" or "few thousand and few hundred", in Hokkien the prefixes pah- or chheng- are used instead of the lengthy way, which requires the speaker to state "how many chheng, how many pah, and how many chaÃÂp".
For expressing fractions, one should use the sentence pattern like "cardinal number + hun-chi + cardinal number"; for example, gà Âàhun-chi it (äºÂÃ¥ÂÂä¹Âä¸Â) for "one fifth" (1/5). Note that the colloquial set of numerals is used in fractional numerals with still the exception of numerals 1 and 2, which should use the literary set as it and jë.
For expressing decimals, one should only use the literary numeral set with tiám (é»Â) for the decimal mark. For example, one may say àequals sam tiám it-sù-it-ngóÃÂ-kiú-jë-lioÃÂk-ngóÃÂ-sam (3.141592653).
In addition, some special fraction can be expressed in other simpler forms. For percentage, one can still use the sentence pattern of hun-chi as pah hun-chi chaÃÂp (ç¾åÂÂä¹ÂÃ¥ÂÂ) for "ten percent" in most situations; however, for native speakers, the suffix -siââ¿ (æÂÂ) for "nÃÂ10 percents" is used more commonly, so the "twenty percents" should be nnÃÂg-siââ¿ (å ©æÂÂ). Note that the numeral set used with the suffix -siââ¿ is totally the colloquial one with no exception.
In Taiwan, the term pha-sian-toàis also used for fractional numerals, but one should use the sentence term as "cardinal number + ê pha-sian-toÃÂ"; for example, chhit-chaÃÂp ê pha-sian-toà(70%). The term was introduced in Japanese rule era from Japanese language; it's a Japanese loanword originating from English with the meaning of "percent" (paasento; ãÂÂã¼ãÂȋ³ãÂÂ). The use of pha-sian-toàis sometimes simplified as a suffix -pha; for example, chaÃÂp-peh-pha (18%).
For ordinal numbers, when the numerals are preceded by the prefix tà(第), the colloquial set is used with the exception of numeral 1 and 2; when the numerals are preceded by the prefix thâu (é Â), there is no exception to use the colloquial set when the number is smaller than 10, but once the number is greater than 10, the exception of numeral 1 and 2 appears again. Note that the system with prefix thâu is usually added by counter words, and it means "the first few"; for example, thâu-gà Âàpái means "the first five times". Thâu-chhit (number seven) sometimes means thâu-chhit kang (first seven days). It means the first seven days after a person died, which is a Hokkien cultural noun that should usually be avoided.