The numeral system in Longuda

This article gives an overview of the cardinal and ordinal numerals in Longuda, a language cluster in north-eastern Nigeria, belonging to the Adamawa branch of the Niger-Congo languages. It focuses on three of its five varieties, namely Deele, Guyuk and Gwaanda, analysing the morphology of the numerals, their behaviour in a noun phrase and the derivation of ordinal numerals from cardinal numerals. It becomes clear that numerals in Longuda are neither adjectives nor nouns but should rather be analysed as being on a scale in-between those lexical categories. The tendency in the languages of the world that lower ordinal numerals are suppletive forms while higher ones are regularly derived from cardinal numerals applies to Longuda as well. At the end of the article, the findings of Longuda numerals are compared to other Adamawa languages and the Niger-Congo family as a whole as compiled by Boyd (1989) and Pozdniakov (2018).