Ngiti language

Ngiti
Ndruna
Spoken in Congo (DRC)
Native speakers 100,000  (1991)
Language family
Language codes
ISO 639-3 niy

The Ngiti, or South Lendu, is an ethnolinguistic group located in the Ituri Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ngiti speakers call their language Ndruna. As of 1991, the Ngiti numbered 100,000 located in the Irumu territory south of Bunia.[1] During the Ituri conflict, the Front for Patriotic Resistance of Ituri was formed as a Ngiti militia group and political party.[2]

Non-standard numeral system

Ngiti is reported to have a base-32 number system with base-4 cycles.[3] The following is a list of some Ngiti numerals.

Number Numeral
1 atdí
2 ɔyɔ
3 ɨ̀bhʉ
4 ɨ̀fɔ
8 àrʉ̀
12 otsi
16 ɔpɨ
20 àbà
24 àròtsí
28 àdzòro
32 wǎdhɨ̀
64 ɔyɔ wǎdhɨ̀
96 ɨ̀bhʉ wǎdhɨ̀
128 ɨ̀fɔ wǎdhɨ̀

Further reading

Notes and references

  1. ^ Ngiti from Ethnologue
  2. ^ "DRC: Who's who in Ituri – militia organisations, leaders", IRIN, 20 April 2005
  3. ^ Hammarström, Harald (2006), "Rarities in Numeral Systems", Proceedings of Rara & Rarissima Conference, http://www.cs.chalmers.se/~harald2/rarapaper.pdf