Gwandara language
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 about 30,000 people. They are found in large numbers in a resettlement town of New Karshi, Karu LGA, Nasarawa State. New Karshi has a Gwandara first class emir Muhammadu Bako III (PhD).
| Gwandara | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Nigeria |
Native speakers | 30,000[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gwn |
| Glottolog | gwan1268[2] |
| Linguasphere | 18-HAA-a |
The Nimbia dialect has a duodecimal numeral system (they count in base 12), whereas other dialects, such as Karshi below, have decimal systems:[3]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ten | eleven | twelve | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nimbia | da | bi | ugu | furu | biyar | shide | bo'o | tager | tanran | gwom | kwada | tuni |
| Karshi | da | bi | uku | huru | biyari | shida | bakwe | takushi | tara | gom | gom sha da | 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:
| 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) |
References
- Gwandara at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Gwandara". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- Matsushita, 'Decimal vs. Duodecimal'
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