Gwandara language

Gwandara
Native to	Nigeria
Native speakers	27,000 (2000)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Chadic West Chadic Hausa–Gwandara (A.1) Gwandara
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gwn
Glottolog	gwan1268[2]
Linguasphere	18-HAA-a

Gwandara is a West Chadic language, and the closest relative of Hausa. Its several dialects are spoken in northern Nigeria by about 30,000 people.

The Nimbia dialect has a duodecimal numeral system, 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

1. Gwandara at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Gwandara". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
3. Matsushita, 'Decimal vs. Duodecimal'