KIM Dongso. (2008). On the Formation of the Numerals of Tens in Altaic Languages. Altai Hakpo 18: 183-196.

The Altaic Society of Korea.

This study describes how the numerals of tens in Altaic languages are formed, and consider whether the methods used were inherent to those languages or introduced by some other factors.

One of the outstanding features of numeral formation in Korean, which is shared by some other Altaic languages, is that the numerals of tens from 20 through 50, i.e., 20, 30, 40 and 50, are formed in a way which is different from that used in forming the numerals of tens from 60 through 90, i.e., 60, 70, 80 and 90. The formation of the numerals of tens shows that they are introduced into the languages by suppletion, not by derivation from their basic single-digit numerals of two through five.

If it is true that those numerals of 20 through 50 are results of suppletion in languages like Turkic, Tungusic, or Korean languages, we may conclude that the methods of numeral formation in Mongolian languages (which derive all the numerals from the single-digit numbers) are the most conservative ones, because in most Indo- European, Semitic, and Sino-Tibetan languages, all the numerals of tens from 20 through 90 have forms derived from the single-digit numerals of two through nine. It would then be not unreasonable to think that the numerals from 60 through 90 in some Turkic and Tungusic languages and in Korean were not produced by the inherent system of those Altaic languages, but by loans from the relevant languages they came across in the course of ethnic contacts in some later periods.

Keywords: numerals of tens in Altaic languages, the outstanding features of numeral formation in Korean, the formation of the numerals of tens, suppletion method, the methods of numeral formation in Mongolian languages.