How many is 数多の数?


Example from a 2017 website:

> 数多の数ある猫種、是非お気に入りの猫ちゃんを見つけて下さい。

Question: In what order of magnitude would you expect the number to be?

Or, since it probably depends on the context, what would the closest English
expression be?

  * A few ...
  * A small number of ...
  * A decent number of ...
  * A large number of ...
  * A surprisingly large number of ...
  * A inconceivably large number of ...
  * other?

_Also spelled "あまたの数"._




あまたの～ is a literary way to say "a vast number of ～". The exact number can be a
million or a hundred depending on the context, but it's stronger than たくさんの,
anyway. If this is an ad of a pet shop, I would feel they are quite confident
about the variety of cats.

You can say あまたの猫種, あまたある猫種 or 数ある猫種, but I feel 数多の数ある猫種 is a little strange.
[数ある on its own means
"many"](http://jisho.org/word/%E6%95%B0%E3%81%82%E3%82%8B), so it sounds like
"a vast number of many kinds of cats" to me. BCCWJ has more than 100 entries
of あまたの/数多の, but no example of あまたの数/数多の数.

The page you linked says あまた is a 熟字訓, which I agree. 数多の数 should be read
あまたのかず.




あまたの～ is a literary way to say "a vast number of ～". The exact number can be a
million or a hundred depending on the context, but it's stronger than たくさんの,
anyway. If this is an ad of a pet shop, I would feel they are quite confident
about the variety of cats.

You can say あまたの猫種, あまたある猫種 or 数ある猫種, but I feel 数多の数ある猫種 is a little strange.
[数ある on its own means
"many"](http://jisho.org/word/%E6%95%B0%E3%81%82%E3%82%8B), so it sounds like
"a vast number of many kinds of cats" to me. BCCWJ has more than 100 entries
of あまたの/数多の, but no example of あまたの数/数多の数.

The page you linked says あまた is a 熟字訓, which I agree. 数多の数 should be read
あまたのかず.

