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Lakh

A '''lakh''' (also written '''lac''') is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to 100000 (number)|one hundred thousand (100,000; 10⁵). It is widely used both in official and other contexts in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Pakistan, and is often used in Indian English. Exact pronunciation varies in different South Asian languages. In Hindi it is (IPA) , in British English (homophone with British "lack") or (homophone with British "lark"), and in American English (homophone with American "lock"). In English the word is used both as an attributive and non-attributive noun, and with either a marked ("-s") or unmarked plural: "1 lakh people" or "1 lakh of people", "5 lakh rupees", "5 lakh of rupees", "5 lakhs rupees", "5 lakhs of rupees" are all to be found. The Indian numbering system also uses Decimal separator|separators differently from the Western system — after the first three digits, a comma divides every two rather than every three digits, thus:
- Indian system: 12,12,12,123 5,05,000 7,00,00,00,000.
- are the same quantities as Western system: 121,212,123 505,000 7,000,000,000 This accords with the Indian naming system, which has units for thousand, hundred thousand, ten million, etc.

Etymology and regional variants

The lakh is known by various regional names in modern languages, all derived from the Sanskrit word लक्ष '''' Digital Dictionaries of South Asia Sir Ralph Lilley Turner (1888-1983): ''Comparative Dictionary of The Indo-Aryan Languages'', page 629: lakṣá 10881. Data for this dictionary was most recently updated in January 2006.
- Assamese language|Assamese: ''lakh''
- Bengali language|Bengali: ''lakh'' or ''lokkho''
- Gujarati language|Gujarati: ''lākh''
- Hindi ''lākh''
- Japanese language|Japanese: ''rakusha''
- Kannada language|Kannada: ''''
- Malayalam language|Malayalam: ''''
- Standard Mandarin|Mandarin: ''luòchā''
- Marathi language|Marathi: ''lākh'' or ''''
- Nepali language|Nepali: ''lākh''
- Oriya language|Oriya: ''lakhya''
- Pashto language|Pashto: ''lak''
- Punjabi language|Punjabi: ਲੱਖ لکھ ''lakh''
- Swahili language|Swahili: laki or lakhi
- Tamil language|Tamil : ''''
- Telugu language|Telugu: ''''
- Thai language|Thai: ''làk''
- Urdu: ''lākh''

Other

Lakh in other languages having Proto-Indo-European roots:
- English language|English lac "red resinous substance," 1553, from Persian language|Persian ''lak'', from Hindi ''lakh'' (Prakrit lakkha), from Sanskrit. ''laksha'', which, according to ''The Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'' (Ernest Klein, 1899-1983) is literally "one hundred thousand," in reference to the insects that gather in great numbers on the trees and make the resin run out. But others say ''lakh'' is an alteration of Sanskrit ''rakh'', from an Indo-European root word for "color" (Webster). Still another guess is that Sanskrit ''laksha'' is related to English ''lax'', ''lox'' "salmon," and the substance was perhaps originally so called from being somewhat the color of salmon.Online Etymology Dictionary retrieved 2008-11-12

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