Blackfoot Numerals

Q: Thank you for your page about the Blackfoot alphabet. But I only see letters on the chart, not numbers. How do you write numbers in Blackfoot?

A:Using Arabic numerals, the same way English does-- 1234567890. Blackfoot, like most languages of the world, does not have its own numeral system.

The only indigenous culture of the Americas I know of which had developed a full numerical system of its own is the Maya civilization. Here is a link to the Mayan mathematical system, which uses Base 20 (as opposed to the Base 10 used by Arabic numerals.)

New symbols for base-10 numerals were developed for Cherokee and Inuktitut in post-colonial times, but most Cherokee and Inuit people continue to use the 1234567890 numerals even when they are writing words in their own scripts.

Q: If they didn't have numbers, does that mean they weren't able to count?

A: No. They had words for numbers ("one" is "ni't" in Blackfoot, "two" is "náátsi," "three" is nioókska," etc), just not special symbols for them. You don't need numerals to count, add or subtract-- only to do more complicated math, like the Arabs and Mayas did. Europeans didn't have a mathematical number system till the 12th century either, but of course they knew how to count and trade!

Many Native cultures kept track of numbers with tally marks, marking down the correct number of dots or lines and then counting them later. Some South American tribes, like the Incas, recorded numbers on a sort of abacus made of knotted strings, called "quipu" in Quechua. Here's a website about this innovative accounting system: Quipu, the ancient computer of the Inca civilization.

Hope that's interesting, have a good day!