Ogoni languages
Cross River language group of Nigeria
title: "Ogoni languages" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ogoni-languages", "cross-river-languages", "indigenous-languages-of-rivers-state"] description: "Cross River language group of Nigeria" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogoni_languages" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Cross River language group of Nigeria ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language family"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Ogoni |
| ethnicity | Ogoni people |
| altname | Kegboid |
| region | SE Nigeria |
| familycolor | Niger-Congo |
| fam2 | Atlantic–Congo |
| fam3 | Benue–Congo |
| fam4 | Cross River |
| child1 | East |
| child2 | West |
| glotto | ogon1240 |
| glottorefname | Ogonoid |
| :: |
|name=Ogoni |ethnicity=Ogoni people |altname=Kegboid |region=SE Nigeria |familycolor=Niger-Congo |fam2=Atlantic–Congo |fam3=Benue–Congo |fam4=Cross River |child1=East |child2=West |glotto=ogon1240 |glottorefname=Ogonoid
The Ogoni languages, or Kegboid languages, are the five languages of the Ogoni people of Rivers State, Nigeria.
They fall into two clusters, East and West, with a limited degree of mutual intelligibility between members of each cluster. The Ogoni think of the cluster members as separate languages.
The classification of the Ogoni languages is as follows:
- East: Khana and Tẹẹ, with around 1,800,000 speakers between them, and Gokana, with about 250,000.
- West: Eleme, with about 90,000 speakers, and Baan, with around 50,500.
Names and locations
Below is a list of language names, populations, and locations from Blench (2019).
::data[format=table]
| Language | Branch | Dialects | Alternate spellings | Own name for language | Endonym(s) | Other names (location-based) | Other names for language | Exonym(s) | Speakers | Location(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gokana | Kegboid | 54,000 (1973 SIL) | Rivers State, Gokana–Tai–Eleme LGA | |||||||
| Khana | Kegboid | Yeghe, Nyokhana, Ken–Khana, Boúe, Kaa | Khana | Ogoni (ethnic and political term includes Gokana) | 76,713 (1926 Talbot); 90,000 (SIL) | Rivers State, Khana/Oyigbo and Gokana–Tai–Eleme LGAs | ||||
| Eleme | West | 55,000 (1987 UBS) | Rivers State, Gokana–Tai–Eleme LGA | |||||||
| Tẹẹ | West | Tai | Tèẹ̀ ̣ | Tèẹ̀ ̣ | 313,000 (2006) | Rivers State, Tèẹ̀ ̣Local Government Area (TALGA) | ||||
| Baan | Ka-Ban, Kesari | Ban–Ogoi | Goi, Ogoi | Fewer than 5,000 (1990) | Rivers State, Gokana–Tai–Eleme LGA, Ban–Ogoi plus villages | |||||
| :: |
References
- Blench, Roger and Kay Williamson. 2008. The Ogoni languages: comparative word list and historical reconstructions.
References
- Blench, Roger. (2019). "An Atlas of Nigerian Languages". Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
- Talbot, P. Amaury 1926. The peoples of Southern Nigeria. A sketch of the history, ethnology and languages with an abstract of the 1923 census. 4 vols. London.
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