Abstract:
This work is a comparative study of the numeric system of two of the most
widely spoken languages not only in Nigeria but Africa and the world as a
whole. It is to explain the styles adopted by the speakers of both languages in
expressing numeral situation
s.
In the early days of some comparison between languages
,
some scholars had
argued that
there was
such a
strong linguistic affinity between Hausa and
English numeral
s
so much t
hat the
two languages could
have common meaning
and non
-
instinctive way of co
mmunicating ideas, emotion and desires by
means of voluntarily produced symbols. This is because any language is
fundamentally a series of sounds which become meaningful only when those
sounds are grouped together in certain definite arrangements (
Olaye
, 1
982).
Besides, just as languages must name things and talk about them, virtually all
human languages (English and Hausa inclusive) count things. By this token,
numeration is somewhat a universal phenomenon.
