Ogoni | |
Ethnicity: | Ogoni people |
Also Known As: | 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, however.
The classification of the Ogoni languages is as follows:
Below is a list of language names, populations, and locations from Blench (2019).[1]
Language | Branch | Dialects | Alternate spellings | Own name for language | Endonym(s) | Other names (location-based) | Other names for language | Exonym(s) | Speakers | Location(s) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kegboid | 54,000 (1973 SIL) | Rivers State, Gokana–Tai–Eleme LGA | |||||||||
Kegboid | Khana | Ogoni (ethnic and political term includes Gokana) | 76,713 (1926 Talbot);[2] 90,000 (SIL) | Rivers State, Khana/Oyigbo and Gokana–Tai–Eleme LGAs | |||||||
West | 55,000 (1987 UBS) | Rivers State, Gokana–Tai–Eleme LGA | |||||||||
West | Tai | Tèẹ̀ ̣ | Tèẹ̀ ̣ | 313,000 (2006) | Rivers State, Tèẹ̀ ̣Local Government Area (TALGA) | ||||||
Ka-Ban, Kesari | Ban–Ogoi | Goi, Ogoi | Fewer than 5,000 (1990) | Rivers State, Gokana–Tai–Eleme LGA, Ban–Ogoi plus villages |