Comparative Study of Numerals and Counting System in the Urhobo and Okpe Languages

This study investigates the numerals and counting system in the Urhobo and Okpe languages. The aim of the study is to examine the cardinal and the ordinal numerals system in both languages. This study adopts word-and-paradigm and descriptive linguistics methods. The WP theory focuses on the whole of a word rather than morphemes. The theory suggests that inflectional forms are organised in paradigms, and inflectional rules operate on a word's base form to generate other related forms. The WP theory is suitable for this study because it accounts for the morphological changes that occur in words and the relevance of such changes in the syntactic structure of the languages under investigation, while the descriptive method is based on describing a language in terms of its current form. The study reveals that higher complex numerals are formed by means of addition and multiplication of numerals in both Languages. The study also reveals that multiplication is done by means of juxtaposition of the elements in multiplication relationships, and also addition of numerals is done by means of gbe in both languages. The study further reveals that both languages use special forms for the first ordinal numbers. In terms of the days of the week, the study reveals that both languages’ days of the week are divided into four market days which culturally transformed into 7 days (Urhughwren) in line with the market days that operates on every 8th day. The major week days are: 4 week days-Udone,7 week days-Udughwren (Urhobo) and  for Okpe Udurihue, and that the 7 days week is counted as Ediruo esosuo (first working day ), Ediruo rive (2nd working day etc), for Okpe, Edijana rotate (sixth day), and Edijana rode (7th day). Moreso, the study reveals that Urhobo and Okpe operate the same numerals and counting system.