| Obolo | |
| Nativename: | Andoni |
| Region: | Rivers State, Akwa Ibom State |
| States: | Nigeria |
| Ethnicity: | Obolo people |
| Speakers: | 318,000 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| Ref: | [1] |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Benue–Congo |
| Fam4: | Cross River |
| Fam5: | Lower Cross |
| Iso3: | ann |
| Glotto: | obol1243 |
| Glottorefname: | Obolo |
Obolo (or Andoni) is a major Cross River language of Nigeria. Obolo is the indigenous name of a community in the eastern Delta of the River Niger, better known as Andoni (the origin of this latter name being uncertain).[2] Obolo refers to the people, the language as well as the land. It is an agglutinative, an SVO and a tonal language.
Obolo language is written in the Latin script. The alphabet is as follows:
| a | b | ch | d | e | f | g | gb | |
| gw | i | j | k | kp | kw | l | m | |
| n | n̄ | nw | ny | o | ọ | p | r | |
| s | (sh) | t | u | (v) | w | y | (z) |
Obolo is a tone language. There are five tones in the language: low, high, mid, falling and rising tone.[5]
| High tone | (´) acute | |
|---|---|---|
| Low tone | (`) grave | |
| Mid tone | (ˉ) macron or unmarked | |
| Falling tone | (ˆ) circumflex | |
| Rising tone | (ˇ) caron |
In writing, only the low tone and falling tone are indicated.[6] Tones are marked compulsorily on the first syllables of verbs and verbal groups. For other classes of words, a standard literature will show the way to go.
There are six major dialect groups in the language, namely: (from west to east): Ataba, Unyeada, Ngo, Okoroete, Iko and Ibot Obolo.[7] Ngo is the prestige dialect, hence the standard literary form of Obolo draws heavily from it.
Obolo language is regulated by the Obolo Language and Bible Translation Organization (OLBTO), a community-owned research and development organization that does dialect surveys and research, oversees the development and introduction of new terminologies, publishes books in the language, etc.