Modelling indigenous counting systems for base-10 and related applications: Abureni numerals as case study

Abstract

Indigenous counting systems and numbering have unique attributes that are linked to the cultures of their speech communities. Indigenous people have used various methods of counting and numbering things based on the meaning they intend to communicate, in terms of their value and significance. A counting system starts from small simple singleword numbers and grows to large complex numbers that may be descriptive in nature. As the numbers increase, they become more difficult to count, requiring the use of certain key numerals as pivots to produce their multiples in a cyclical pattern. However, these pivotal numerals upon which a particular counting system is based vary from one tradition to another. The introduction of base-10, the concept of 'zero' as a number, and the use of binary logic in digital technology have become universal standard methods of addressing such ethno-cultural variations. They are significant in the discourse of language and globalization, especially in the computation and business environment of today. This paper seeks to contribute to the discussion on the need to model the features of indigenous counting systems such that they benefit from the inherent gains of base-10 and related applications of the modern day. It adopts a semantic-pragmatic approach to describe and analyse indigenous numbering patterns against those of base-10, using the Abureni numerals as the data for the study. The objective is to show the points of synergy that the numerals could be modeled for base-10 applications in a manner that
they sound natural in the indigenous language, in terms of context and meaning. The paper concludes that the features of an indigenous counting system can be patterned to produce a base-10 model of it, without disrupting the traditional numbering pattern of the target language.