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 I ...
,
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 of G ...
.
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 a ...
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