Oko language

Oko
Ogori-Magongo
Native toNigeria
RegionKogi State
Native speakers
40,000 (2006)[1]
Niger–Congo?
  • Atlantic–Congo
    • Volta–Niger
      • noi
        • Oko
Dialects
  • Oko
  • Eni
  • Osayen
Language codes
ISO 639-3oks
Glottologokoe1238

Oko (ɔ̀kɔ́), also known as Ogori-Magongo and Oko-Eni-Osayin, is a dialect cluster spoken in Nigeria. It appears to form a branch of the "Nupe–Oko–Idoma" (noi) group of Niger–Congo languages. Most Oko speakers also speak Yoruba as a second language. The language is spoken in and around the towns of Ogori and Magongo in southwestern Kogi State, close to the Ondo and Edo state borders.

Classification

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Oko is one of the Volta–Niger languages.

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013) grouped Oko within the Idomoid languages.[2]

Distribution

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According to Ethnologue, Oko is spoken in:

Varieties

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Oko is a dialect cluster consisting of (Ethnologue):

  • Oko (Ogori, Uku)
  • Osayin(Magongo, Osanyin)
  • Eni

Below is a list of Ọkọ–Eni–Ọsayin language cluster names, populations, and locations from Blench (2019).[3]

Language Alternate spellings Other names (location-based) Speakers
Ọkọ Uku, Oko Ogori (town name), Gori 4,000 (1970??)
Ọsayin Osayin, Ọsayin Magongo (town name) 3,000 (1970??)
Eni 3,000 (1970??)

Phonology

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Consonants

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Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-
velar
Glottal
Nasal m n
Plosive Voiceless p t k k͡p
Voiced b d g ɡ͡b
Affricate Voiceless t͡ʃ
Voiced d͡ʒ
Fricative Voiceless f s h
Voiced z
Trill r
Approximant l j w

Vowels

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Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Low ä

Each vowel also has a nasal equivalent.[4]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Oko at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013).
  3. ^ Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
  4. ^ Atoyebi, Joseph Dele (2009). A Reference Grammar of Oko. Umuneke-Okpala, Nigeria: Leipzig University Press.