Gwandara | |
---|---|
Kwandara | |
Native to | Nigeria |
Native speakers | 27,000 (2000) [1] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | gwn |
Glottolog | gwan1268 |
Linguasphere | 18-HAA-a |
Gwandara is a West Chadic language, and the closest relative of Hausa. Its several dialects are spoken in northern Nigeria, predominantly in the north central region of Nigeria by the Gwandara people and some settlers who are about 30,000 people. They are found in large numbers in Abuja, Niger, Kaduna, Kogi and a resettlement town of New Karshi, Karu LGA, Nasarawa State. New Karshi has a Gwandara first class emir Muhammadu Bako III (PhD).
The Gwandara people are one of the indigenous tribes of FCT Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria.
The Nimbia dialect has a duodecimal numeral system (they count in base 12), whereas other dialects, such as Karshi below, have decimal systems: [2]
Nimbia | Karshi | |
---|---|---|
1 | da | da |
2 | bi | bi |
3 | ugu | uku |
4 | furu | huru |
5 | biyar | biyari |
6 | shide | shida |
7 | bo'o | bakwe |
8 | tager | takushi |
9 | tanran | tara |
ten | gwom | gom |
eleven | kwada | gom sha da |
twelve | tuni | gom sha bi |
It is thought that Nimbia, which is isolated from the rest of Gwandara, acquired its duodecimal system from neighboring East Kainji languages. It is duodecimal even to powers of base twelve: The Nimbia 12 number set number system is known for making division easier.
tuni mbe da | 13 | (dozen and one) |
gume bi | 24 | (two dozen) |
gume bi ni da | 25 | (two dozen and one) |
gume kwada ni kwada | 143 | (eleven dozen and eleven) |
wo | 144 | (gross) |
wo bi | 288 | (two gross) |
The decimal numeral system is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. The way of denoting numbers in the decimal system is often referred to as decimal notation.
The duodecimal system, also known as base twelve or dozenal, is a positional numeral system using twelve as its base. In duodecimal, the number twelve is denoted "10", meaning 1 twelve and 0 units; in the decimal system, this number is instead written as "12" meaning 1 ten and 2 units, and the string "10" means ten. In duodecimal, "100" means twelve squared, "1000" means twelve cubed, and "0.1" means a twelfth.
In mathematics and computing, the hexadecimal numeral system is a positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of sixteen. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using ten symbols, hexadecimal uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols "0"–"9" to represent values 0 to 9, and "A"–"F" to represent values from ten to fifteen.
In linguistics, a numeral in the broadest sense is a word or phrase that describes a numerical quantity. Some theories of grammar use the word "numeral" to refer to cardinal numbers that act as a determiner that specify the quantity of a noun, for example the "two" in "two hats". Some theories of grammar do not include determiners as a part of speech and consider "two" in this example to be an adjective. Some theories consider "numeral" to be a synonym for "number" and assign all numbers to a part of speech called "numerals". Numerals in the broad sense can also be analyzed as a noun, as a pronoun, or for a small number of words as an adverb.
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