A figure and its name are separate

The number appendix in the 1851 Lodiana grammar sets written figures beside cardinal and ordinal forms. The ten Gurmukhi figure records below are checked against that table, from one through ten. A figure identifies the written numerical value; the neighbouring columns give language forms for quantity and position. Keeping those columns apart helps when a historical page mixes figures with words. The form used to identify how many items there are is a different entry from the form identifying an item’s place in a sequence, even when both concern the same number.[1]

Follow the whole ordinal column

The Lodiana appendix continues its paired cardinal and ordinal columns beyond the first ten. The printed entry for twenty also records alternatives. This arrangement lets a reader compare a quantity with its corresponding position instead of inventing an ordinal merely by copying the printed numeral. It also preserves the book’s nineteenth-century spellings. A transcription of the written figure need not silently modernise the adjacent word. When checking a date, numbered item or list, first establish whether the passage contains a figure, a cardinal word or a positional expression, then consult the relevant column of the actual table.[1]

Shahpur counting has its own recorded forms

Wilson’s Shahpur grammar records variants at the start of its numeral list, including hekk or hikk for one. Its next page distinguishes ordinary, oblique and intensive forms; the intensive forms include meanings corresponding to both and all three. Another section describes groups of ten, twenty and larger quantities. Wilson also reports counting by scores, illustrating 114 both as a hundred plus fourteen and as six scores less six. These are conventions reported in his dated district description. They help decode the examples without establishing one compulsory method of present-day Punjabi counting.[2]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Lodiana American Presbyterian Mission Press; J. Newton attribution in the archive catalogue; Rev. J. Porter, press superintendent. A Grammar of the Panjabi Language; with Appendices ↗Historical descriptive and teaching grammar · Source date: 1851 · Locator: Appendix I, printed pp.82–83/PDF95–96: written figures, cardinal and ordinal columns. Accessed 2026-11-02.Selected actual original pages were inspected, with page images controlling script and table alignment. This is a dated description, without a listening check or certification of current universal usage. Original attribution and finite text scope remain qualified.Return to Script form 1 ↑Return to Script form 2 ↑Return to Script form 3 ↑Return to Script form 4 ↑Return to Script form 5 ↑Return to Script form 6 ↑Return to Script form 7 ↑Return to Script form 8 ↑Return to Script form 9 ↑Return to Script form 10 ↑Return to A figure and its name are separate, paragraph 1 ↑Return to Follow the whole ordinal column, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. J. Wilson; acknowledged assistance of Munshi Mahbub Alam; Punjab Government Press. Grammar and Dictionary of Western Panjabi, as Spoken in the Shahpur District, with Proverbs, Sayings and Verses ↗Historical district grammar and dictionary · Source date: 1899 imprint; preface September 1898 · Locator: Grammar printed pp.17–19/PDF35–37: numeral table, declension, groups, scores and ordinals. Accessed 2026-11-02.Selected actual original pages were inspected, with page images controlling script and table alignment. This is a dated description, without a listening check or certification of current universal usage. Original attribution and finite text scope remain qualified.Return to Shahpur counting has its own recorded forms, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-LAN-0091 · English edition · human review not performed