Nihali
Nihali is a language isolate spoken in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. It has around 2,500 speakers who are all bilingual in other nearby languages of higher status. It has borrowed a lot of words from other nearby languages: for example, it uses numerals of Dravidian etymology for numbers between 2 and 4 and numerals of Indo-Aryan etymology for numbers greater than 5. Possibly the only numeral it has preserved is the number 1.
Here are the numbers from zero to ten translated in Nihali:
| Number | Romanisation | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | // | |
| 1 | biḍi, baḍa | /biɖi/, /baɖa/ |
| 2 | irār, īr, ēr | /iraːr/, /iːr/, /eːr/ |
| 3 | mōṭho | /moːʈʰo/ |
| 4 | nal, nalko | /nal/, /nalko/ |
| 5 | pāsō | /paːsoː/ |
| 6 | sāha | /saːha/ |
| 7 | sāto | /saːto/ |
| 8 | āṭho | /aːʈʰo/ |
| 9 | nav | /naʋ/ |
| 10 | deccho | /det͡ʃːʰo/ |
Source: "The Nihali Language" by K. S. Nagaraja
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