The Ogoni languages, or Kegboid languages, are the five languages of the
Ogoni people
The Ogonis are a people in the Rivers South East senatorial district of Rivers State, in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria. They number just over 2 million and live in a homeland which they also refer to as Ogoniland. They share common ...
of
Rivers State
Rivers State, also known as Rivers, is a state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria (Old Eastern Region). Formed in 1967, when it was split from the former Eastern Region, Rivers State borders include: Imo to the north, Abia and Akwa ...
,
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
.
They fall into two clusters, East and West, with a limited degree of
mutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
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:
* East:
Khana Khana may refer to:
* Khana language
Places
* Khana, Arghakhanchi, a village in Arghakhanchi district, Nepal
*Khana, Nigeria, a Local Government Area in Rivers State
*Khana Junction in Bardhaman district, West Bengal, India
*Kingdom of Khana in Ba ...
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).
See also
*
List of Proto-Ogoni reconstructions (Wiktionary)
References
*Blench, Roger and Kay Williamson. 2008.
The Ogoni languages: comparative word list and historical reconstructions'.
{{Niger-Congo branches
Cross River languages
Indigenous languages of Rivers State