Ebira (pronounced as /eh 'be ra/; also known as Igbira, Egbura, or
Okene
Okene is a town in the Nigerian state of Kogi. The town is based in a Local Government Area of the same name. Okene runs along the A2 highway. It had an area of 328 km² and a population of 320,260 at the 2006 census.
The predominant people ...
) is a
Niger-Congo language. It is spoken by around 2 million people in North central
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 ...
. It is the most divergent
Nupoid language.
Dialects
Varieties of Ebira are:
[Blench, Roger. 2013. ]
The Nupoid languages of west-central Nigeria: overview and comparative word list
'.
*Tao dialect, the more prominent dialect used in media and publishing. It is spoken to the west of the Niger-Benue confluence
*Koto (Okpoto) dialect, spoken to the northeast of the Niger-Benue confluence. It is known only from a wordlist in Sterk (1978a).
Blench (2019) lists Okene, Etuno (Tụnọ), and Koto.
References
Nupoid languages
{{VoltaNiger-lang-stub