Lucky numbers

Are there other languages than Mandarin that so much associates bad luck/death with number 4 and luck/fortune with number 8 (could be other numbers in different languages). To the extent that people will avoid getting a number plate containing a 4 number or pay having an 8 on their number plate or included in their phone number (multiple 8s are even better)? Even properties decrease or increase in value depending on the number.

I only know about 13 often being considered an unlucky number, a phenomenon called "Triskaidekaphobia". Is there a similar term for other cases, including the 4 and 8 in Mandarin?

There're four 8's in my phone nr, another one in the country code and yet another one in the area (city) code, that's six 8's. Should I start a business with some Chinese company?

Are you asking if the Chinese have a term to describe their attitude to the numbers 4 and 8? Or are you asking if there's a term to describe the superstitions associated with numbers in cultures or languages other than one's own?

I was wondering if other languages have numbers that associate luck or fortune and if yes, if there is a term for that in those languages (not the superstition associated with numbers).

tonieja - your phone number is worth a fortune if you sell it to a superstitious Chinese!

"4" in Mandarin and some other local Chinese dialects sounds like how you might pronounce death.
"8" sound like prosper and growth so 8888 is 4x lucky.

Also in Vietnamese
>...luck in Viet Nam is also associated with the ancient Vietnamese language, Sino Vietnamese, which originated in China. According to this, the number four (tu) sounds like the word for death (tu). Similarly, the number six (luc) sounds like loc tien, which means a windfall of money. Eight (bat) sounds similar to the word phat trien, which means develop. Thus the combination 68 is especially lucky because it means prosperity.

I was in Vietnam on some day considered especially auspicious for weddings, due to the combination of numbers in the date (I forget what it was). Everywhere we went, we saw wedding parties.

Edited to add: Lucky and unlucky numbers around the world. I can't vouch for the scholarship.

Edited by: Charles Lindbergh

Interesting. I was not aware that to Chinese 9 is a lucky number as well while 7 is another unlucky one.

Seven is the number of prescribed courses t a Cantonese funeral banquet, so another association with death.

in Georgia parents generally don t celebrate their kids birth day when they turn one years old and adults generally don t do it when they turn 40.on the other hand 33 is considered as lucky numer to celebrate it

The number4 thing occurs in several Asian languages including Japanese, number 9 is good for longevity apparently. My Hong Kong ID card has a couple of 8s and a 9, enough to get any Hongkonger salivating ! A Chinese friend here in UK has changed his telephone number to only 8s - very lucky !

As homophones and near-homophones, Chinese numbers when strung together and read aloud can produce results both auspcious and not. Scroll down and you'll find a good set of examples on this Wiki page:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Chinese_culture

Thus be careful selecting any numbers you'll be saying out loud a lot in China, like a flat address or phone number. Same homophone problem arises in picking a child's name.

That last post turned my reported posts to 1,444, and that's a number too hard to look at, so let me boost it up one.

It's hard to be optimistic for the future of the human race when more than a billion people believe that powdered rhino horn gives you an erection, shark's fin soup makes you fierce like a shark, and the number four is bad because of its sound.

Somehow the world's survived over 2000 years with vast numbers of people believing wine can become blood.

We know quite a few people who believe "666" is the mark of the devil.

889 #13, yes, it's frightening isn't it? (But the Last Supper wasn't quite 2000 years ago.)

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraphobia

We have 12A and 12B here in most of the lifts in apartments and even some office floors.

I can't remember which hotel and where it was, but there was no floor 13, only 12 and 14.
Another hotel I stayed in had no room 13 either.