ENYABA - NUPE NUMERAL / COUNTING SYSTEM

Note that the numbering is not sequentially arranged:

Nupe	Arabic
Kurugi	0
Ganfi	½
Nìní	1
Gubà	2
Guta	3
Gunni	4
Gutsun	5
Gutswanyi	6
Gutwabà	7
Gutòtá	8
Gutwani	9
Guwò	10
Guwò bè nìní	11
Guwò bè gubà è	12
Gwegi dín gubà	13
Gwegi dín nìní	14
Gwegi	15
Gwegi bè nìní	16
Gwegi bè gubà è	17
Eshi dín gubà	18
Eshi dín nìní	19
Eshi	20
Eshi bè nìní	21
Eshi bè gubà è	22
Eshi bè guta è	23
Eshi bè gunni	24
Eshi bè gutsun ì	25
Eshi bè gutswanyi	26
Eshi bè gutwabà	27
Gbanwò dín gubà	28
Gbanwò dín nìní	29
Gbanwò	30
Gbanwò bè nìní	31
Gbanwò bè gubà è	32
Rudin dín gubà	33
Rudin dín nìní	34
Rudin	35
Rudin bè nìní	36
Rudin bè gubà è	37
Shibà dín gubà	38
Shibà dín nìní	39
Shibà	40
Shibà bè nìní	41
Shibà bè gubà è	42
Shibà bè guta è	43
Shibà bè gunni	44
Shibà bè gutsun ì	45
Shibà bè gutswanyi	46
Shibà bè gutwabà è	47
Aráta dín gubà	48
Aráta dín nìní	49
Aráta	50
Aráta bè nìní	51
Aráta bè gubà è	52
Aráta bè guta è	53
Aráta bè gunni	54
Aráta bè gutsun ì	55
Aráta bè gutswanyi	56
Arata bè gutwabà è	57
Shita dín gubà	58
Shita dín nìní	59
shita	60
Shita bè nìní	61
Shita bè gubà è	62
Shita bè guta è	63
Shita bè gunni	64
Shita bè gutsun ì	65
Shita bè gutswanyi	66
Shita bè gutwabà è	67
Adwani dín gubà	68
Adwani dín nìní	69
Adwani	70
Adwani bè nìní	71
Adwani bè gubà è	72
Adwani bè guta è	73
Adwani bè gunni	74
Adwani bè gutsun ì	75
Adwani bè gutswanyi	76
Adwani bè gutwabà è	77
Shini dín gubà	78
Shini bè nìní	79
Shini	80
Shini bè nìní	81
Shini bè gubà è	82
Shini bè guta è	83
Shini bè gunni	84
Shini bè gutsun ì	85
Shini bè gutswanyi	86
Shini bè gutwabà è	87
Shini bè gutòtá è	88
Shini bè gutwani	89
Shini bè guwò è	90
Shini bè guwò è tú nìní	91
Shini bè guwò è tú gubà	92
Shini bè guwò è tú guta	93
Shini bè guwò è tú gunni	94
Shini bè guwò è tú gutsun	95
Shini bè guwò è tú gutswanyi	96
Shini bè guwò è tú gutwabà	97
Shitsun dín gubà	98
Shitsun dín nìní	99
Shitsun	100

Shitsun bè nìní	101
Shitsun bè gutsun ì	105
Shitsun bè gutwani	109
Shitsun bè guwò è	110
Shitsun bè guwò è tú gunni	114
Shitswanyi	120
Shitswanyi bè gutsun è	125
Shitswanyi bè gutwani	129
Shitswanyi bè guwò è	130
Shitswanyi bè guwò è tú gutsun	135
Shitwabà	140
Shitwabà bè gunni	144
Shitwabà bè gutòtá è	148
Shitwabà bè guwò è	150
Shitwabà bè guwò è tú gutsun	155
wogbogunni dín gubà	158
wogbogunni dín  nìní	159
wogbogunni /shitwani	160
wogbogunni  bè gutwani	169
wogbogunni  bè guwò  è	170
wogbogunni  bè guwò tú gunni	174
Gwásán dín nìní	178
Gwásán / Shitòtá	180
Gwásán bè gutsun è	185
Gwásán bè gutòtá è	188
Gwásán bè guwò è	190
Gwásán bè guwò è tú gutsun	195
Gwásán bè guwò è tú gutwabà	197
Kpákó dín nìní	199
Kpákó	200

Kpákó bè guwò è	210
kpákó bè gwegi	215
Kpákó bè eshi	220
Kpákó bè gbanwò è	230
Kpákó bè shibà dín gubà	238
Kpákó bè shibà	240
Kpákó bè arata  è	250
Kpákó bè shita è	260
Kpákó bè shita tú guwò	270
Kpákó bè shini dín gutwabà	273
Kpákó bè shini dín nìní	279
Kpákó bè shini	280
Kpákó bè shini tú guwò	290
Kpákó bè shitsun ì	300
Kpákó bè shitsun tú aráta	350
Kpóbà	400
Kpóbà bè shini tú guwò	490
Kpóbà bè shitsun ì	500
Kpóbà bè shitsun ì tú shibà	540
Kpóbà bè aráta	550
Kpóta	600
Kpóta bè shita è tú gutsun	665
Kpóta bè shita è tú guwò	670
Kpóta bè shitsun ì dín guta	697
Kpóta bè shitsun ì	700
Kpóta bè shitsun tú guwò	710
Kpóta bè shitsun tú shini dín gubà	778
Kpóni	800
Kpóni bè shini tú gutwani	889
Kpóni bè shitsun tú shini dín gubà	898
Kpóni bè shitsun	900
Kpóni bè shitsun tú shini	940
Kpóni bè shitsun tú shini bè gutwabà	987
Kpótsun dín nìní	999
Kpótsun	1 000

Kpótsun bè guwo è	1010
Kpótswanyi bè aráta  è	1250
Kpótwabà	1400
Kpótwabà bè shitsun è	1500
Kpótwabà bè shitsun tú shita  bè gutwabà	1567
Kpótòtá	1600
Kpótòtá bè eshi tú gutsun	1625
Kpótòtá bè shitsun è	1700
Kpótòtá bè shitsun tú shita bè guwò tú gutwabà	1777
Kpótwani	1800
Kpótwani bè shini dín nìní	1879
Kpótwani bè shitsun / gba dín shitsun	1900
Gba dín gwegi bè nìní	1984
Gba dín nìní	1999
Gba	2 000

Gba bè nìní	2 001
Gba bè gutwani	2 009
Gba bè eshi	2 020
Gba bè shitsun è	2 100
Gba bè kpákό tú eshi bè guta	2 223
Gba bè kpóni tú shita dín gunni	2 856
Gba  bè kpótsun è	3 000
Gba  bè kpákό tú shitsun bè rudin din gubà	3 333
Gbóbà dín kpóta	3 400
Gbóbà din shitsun	3900
Gbóbà	4 000
Gbóbà bè kpóta din shibà	4 560
Gbóbà bè kpótsun  è	5 000
Gbóbà bè kpóbà tú shitsun bè eshi tú guta	5 523
Gbóta	6 000
Gbóta bè kpóta è tú shita bè gutswanyi	6 666
Gbóta bè kpótsun è	7 000
Gbóta bè kpóbà tú eshi	7 420
Gbóta bè kpóbà tú shitsun  è	7 500
Gbóta bè kpóni tú shita bè gutswanyi	7 866
Gbóni dín eshi bè gunni	7 976
Gbóni	8 000
Gbóni bè kpóta  è	8 600

Gbóni bè kpótsun è	9 000
Gbótsun dín nìní	9 999
Gbótsun	10 000

Gbótsun bè nìní	10 001
Gbótsun bè shitsun tú nìní	10 101
Gbótswanyi bè kpákό tú gunni	12 204
Gbótwabà bè kpótsun  ì	15 000
Gbótwabà bè kpótòtá tú shibà bè gutsun  ì	15 645
Gbótòtá	16 000
Gbótòtá bè kpótsun è	17 000
Gbaguwò	20 000
Gbaguwò bè nìní tú kpótswanyi bè rudin	23 235
Gbaguwò bè gubà è tú kpótsun	25 000
Gbagwegi	30 000
Gbashi	40 000
Gbashi bè gutsun ì	50 000
Gbashi bè gutwabà è, tú kpótòtá be shitsun, tú eshi bè guta è	55 723
Gbagbanwò	60 000
Gbagbanwò bè guta è, tú kpóta bè shita tú gutswanyi	66 666
Gbarudin	70 000
Gbashibà	80 000
Gbashibà bè gutsun ì	90 000
Gbashibà bè gutwani, tú kpótwabà bè shitsun è, tú shita bè gutòtá è	99 568
Gbaráta	100 000
Gbashita	120 000
Gbashita bè gutwabà è, tú kpóbà bè shitsun	134 500
Gbashita bè guwò è	140 000
Gbashini bè guwò è	180 000
Gbashitsun	200 000
Gbashitswanyi	240 000
Gbashitwabà bè guwò è, tú kpóbà bè shitsun tú gutòtá	300 508
Gbakpákó	400 000
Gbakpákó bè eshi tú gutsun	450 000
Gbakpákó bè arata è	500 000
Gbakpákó bè shitsun ì	600 000
Gbakpákó bè shitsun bè arata è	700 000
Gbakpákó bè shitwani tú gunni, tú kpákó bè shitsun ì, tú shibà bè gutsun ì	768 345
Gbakpóbà	800 000
Gbakpóba bè aráta  è	900 000
Kpótsutsùn	1 000 000

Kpótsutsùn tú nìní	1 000 001
Kpótsutsùn tú shitsun bè guta è	1 000 103
Kpótsutsùn tú gbashi bè gutsun ì, tú kpákó bè aráta è	1 050 250
Kpótsutsùn tú gbashitswanyi bè gutòtá è, tú kpákό bè shitsun, tú shiba bè gutswanyi	1 256 346
Kpótsutsùn tú gbakpákό	1 400 000
Kpótsutsùn tú gbakpákό bè aráta  è	1 500 000
Kpótsutsùn tú gbakpákό bè shitsun  ì	1 600 000
Kpótsutsùn tú gbakpóbà bè aráta  è	1 900 000
Kpótsutsùn  édá eshi bè gubà è, tú gbakpákό bè guwò è, tú kpóni bè shibà tú gutwabà	22 420 847
Kpótsutsùn édá shitsun	100, 000 000
Kpótsutsùn édá kpákό bè eshi tú gutsun, tú gbakpákό bè shini tú guta, tú kpótwabà bè shitsun dín gubà	225 567 498
Kpótsutsùn édá kpóbà bè shitsun è	500 000 000
Kpótsutsùn édá kpóni bè shibà tú gutsun, tú gbakpákό	890 400 000
Kpótsutsùn édá kpótsun dín nìní	999 000 000
Kpótsutsùn édá kpótsun	1 000 000 000

For more details, grab a copy of Enyalò (Nupe Arithmetic) by Gandzo Enterprises published in 2012.

‘How to revive indigenous languages’

Isyaku Bala Ibrahim

AWAAL GATA was recently with Ibrahim Isyaku Bala, who writes in an indigenous language, Nupe. He also writes biographies. Bala elucidated the reasons why Nigeria’s languages are dying and how they are to be revived.

Tell me about you

There is nothing much about me. I am Ibrahim Isyaku Bala. I studied Business Administration, and now I have completed my MBA. Beside my parley with profession as a business administrator, I love the arts, thus I am writing. I do indigenous writing and biographies.

How many books do you have on the bookstand?

I have two; biography of Governor Babangida Aliyu and Eganmaganzhi Nupe, a book of Nupe proverbs. I have many other works am working on. Biographies and Nupe books.

Why are you into indigenous writing?

In Nigeria, our indigenous languages are dying, because of our embrace of English Language. If a language dies, that is the death of a very substantial part of its culture. And as it is known, there will no be a perfect society if the society does not embrace its culture. In Nigeria, our dalliance with alien culture is part of our problems. For example, this Boko Haram problem, it is spawned by our emulation of Arabian culture. It is not African for a man to bomb himself. If Arabians are bombing themselves, probably it is because they are being attacked by American, but here, who is attacking us? It is just our over emulation of alien culture that is part of our national problem. So, as I am out as an indigenous writer to revive our dying culture through writing in Nupe Language. If I had power to do it in other tribes I would have done it, but I don’t have. Other writers have to write in their languages.

What has been the reception given to your book of Nupe proverbs?

It has been well received. In fact, till date people still contact me for copies. During the book launch, I sold very well. And the launchers were generous. Upon all these successes I still have not sold copies as I ought to because of the book distribution problem that is prevalent in Nigeria. In Nigeria a writer is to write, publish and distribute. It ought not to be like that. There should be big publishers who do the publishing on the bases of royalty, so that a writer’s work should solidly be writing. The publishers ought to have a method of distributing the books to the whole world. It is not so in Nigeria. I know it is not bigger than what Nigeria can do; we have seen it happen in many smaller countries.

What is the position of indigenous writing in Nigeria?

Our government has not understood that its neglect of some indigenous languages is a huge problem militating against our national development. Our laws have not helped matters too. It is a total injustice for three languages to be adopted as the only national languages in the country where countless languages exist. Yes, the languages are countless. Anybody that says Nigeria is a country of about three hundred languages did not conduct a full-fledged empirical research. Nobody can even do that. Nigeria is vast to the extent that some of its people are not known to be existing. Government has totally neglected the indigenous languages. In schools, at times they teach three, which are Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. What about the people that are not Hausa Yoruba or Igbo? It ought to be, if I am Gwari, I should be taught Gwari, if I am Nupe I should be taught Nupe, if I am Yoruba, I should be taught Yoruba and that should happen to all languages. I am not a Hausa man. I was taught Hausa in school, yes, it could be good, but that is not me, and it is a problem. The fate of indigenous languages in Nigeria is shouldered by individual writers, who are helpless themselves.

How can the problems be solved?

If bold steps are not taken, I assure you many of our indigenous languages will die. UNESCO has even reported that about ten Nigerian languages could die before the next decade. The report, to me is correct because many of our children these days don’t know how to speak their mother tongues. For the problem to be solved, Centre for Indigenous Languages must be established in our universities and a student compulsorily studies two to four indigenous languages, his mother’s tongue included. There is also the need for the establishment of independent Indigenous Language Research Institute, where researches will be made on indigenous languages, especially the dying ones. It is just the people that don’t know, these indigenous languages could be attractive to tourists. Government can, through Indigenous Languages Research Institute, collects the proverbs and idioms of each of the over three hundred languages in Nigeria do a separate book for each of the languages, and foreign researches and tourists must look for them. Is that not a source of revenue? Again, writers writing in indigenous languages should be given platforms as given to the ones writing in English. Magana Jari Ce and Ruwan Bagaja are two classic Hausa novels. They were very popular; every reader in those days loved them. I don’t know why the contemporary ones don’t attend that feat. But it all rest on the afore-mentioned problems.

Your book of proverbs; are the proverbs from your brain?

They are not from my brain. I would rather call it a collection of the proverbs that are used by the Nupe people. You see, children don’t like speaking their mothers’ tongues again, they don’t even know of the proverbs, so I decided to do a compilation so that they will not totally go out of existence. Making the compilation took a lot of time. But I was doing it gradually. I was doing a sort of empirical research; asking the old people. I would go to the naming or wedding ceremonies with my pen and paper and jot down when the invited minstrel spoke a proverb. Nupe minstrels are custodians of proverbs because minstrelsy behooves them to do that. Old people have versatility in it too. I think that is because in the past people used to talk more in ironies.

How rich is Nupe language?

Very rich. Just because of its originality I will say it is very rich. Ninety-eight percent of Nupe words are not borrowed. Unlike Hausa that about fifty percent of its words are not original. Hausa has borrowed too many words from Arabic. Nupe also has excellent tonal patterns.

Does Nupe writing presently in existence? What is the situation now?

Nupe writing started in 1864 by Reverend Ajayi Crowther. He wrote The Vocabulary and Grammar of Nupe Language in Roman Autography. After him, a few others like Muson and S.F. Nadal have written in Nupe. Right now I don’t think there is any writer writing in Nupe like I am doing.

What are you working on now?

I am working on a Nupe novella -  Cincin-Guta and Ecingi Mi à kya.

Culled from:

Blueprint newspaper vol. 129

Friday, February 17, 2012

ENYALO (NUPE ARITHMETIC) RELEASED

     ENYALO (NUPE ARITHMETIC) RELEASED