The lower numbers

Letoa counts in base 12. Base 12 is the dominant base on Toa. Some cultures use base 6 and others use base 12 with a sub-base of six but the global auxiliary language has gone with the majority.

Numbers up to a dozen

Here are the numbers in Letoa from 1 to 12. Following Earthly notation conventions, A and B are used here to provide one-place characters for ten and eleven. Our twelve is then written as 10. It may also be called a dozen.

Base 12	Letoa	Base 10
1	Sa	One
2	Seu	Two
3	Ho	Three
4	Bata	Four
5	Oa	Five
6	Go	Six
7	Oji	Seven
8	Dane	Eight
9	Lo	Nine
A	Iko	Ten
B	Litu	Eleven
10	Nam	Dozen

The next eleven numbers

The next eleven numbers in Letoa take the numbers above and combine them with the word nam. The final m becomes an n on contact with most non-labial consonants and disappears entirely in some positions.

Base 12	Letoa	Base 10
11	Nansa	Thirteen
12	Nanseu	Fourteen
13	Naho	Fifteen
14	Nambata	Sixteen
15	Namoa	Seventeen
16	Nango	Eighteen
17	Namoji	Nineteen
18	Nandane	Twenty
19	Nalo	Twenty-one
1A	Namiko	Twenty-two
1B	Nalitu	Twenty-three

Counting the dozens

When counting the dozens, the nam is placed at the end and the multiplier is prefixed to it. These compounds are all regular.

Base 12	Letoa	Base 10
20	Seunam	Twenty-four
30	Honam	Thirty-six
40	Batanam	Forty-eight
50	Oanam	Sixty
60	Gonam	Seventy-two
70	Ojinam	Eighty-four
80	Danenam	Ninety-six
90	Lonam	One hundred and eight
A0	Ikonam	One hundred and twenty
B0	Litunam	One hundred and thirty-two

Intermediate numbers place the dozen first, then the remainder.

Seunam iko – 2A (two dozen plus ten, i.e. 34 in base 10)

Gonam oa – 65 (six dozen plus five, i.e. 77 in base 10)

Counting the grosses

A dozen dozens form a gross and the word for gross is kou. It may be written as 100 in base 12. This is equivalent to one hundred and forty-four in base 10. Unlike the English word hundred, kou may be compounded. Once again, compounding is entirely regular.

Hokou – 300 (three gross, i.e. 432 in base 10)

Batakou danenam sa – 481 (four gross, eight dozen and one, i.e. 673 in base 10)

Ojikou seunam iko – 72A (seven gross, two dozen and ten, i.e. 1,042 in base 10)

Note that one gross is always written as kou alone. It is never written as *Sakou or *Sa kou.

Kou oanam – 150 (one gross and five dozen, i.e. 204 in base 10)

The most important number?

Finally and perhaps most importantly we should note that Letoa has a word for zero. That word is cuma and it is important as the presence of zero enables positional notation to be used when writing numbers.