Oko language

Oko
Oko
Ogori-Magongo
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Kogi State
Native speakers	40,000 (2006)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta–Niger noi Oko; ; ; ;
Dialects	Oko; Eni; Osayen;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	oks
Glottolog	okoe1238

Oko (ɔ̀kɔ́), also known as Ogori-Magongo and Oko-Eni-Osayin, is a dialect cluster spoken in Nigeria. It appears to form a branch of the "Nupe–Oko–Idoma" (noi) group of Niger–Congo languages. Most Oko speakers also speak Yoruba as a second language. The language is spoken in and around the towns of Ogori and Magongo in southwestern Kogi State, close to the Ondo and Edo state borders.

Classification

Oko is one of the Volta–Niger languages.

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013) grouped Oko within the Idomoid languages.^[2]

Distribution

According to Ethnologue, Oko is spoken in:

Edo State: Akoko-Edo LGA
Kogi State: Okene LGA, Magongo, and Ogori towns

Varieties

Oko is a dialect cluster consisting of (Ethnologue):

Oko (Ogori, Uku)
Osayin(Magongo, Osanyin)
Eni

Below is a list of Ọkọ–Eni–Ọsayin language cluster names, populations, and locations from Blench (2019).^[3]

Language	Alternate spellings	Other names (location-based)	Speakers
Ọkọ	Uku, Oko	Ogori (town name), Gori	4,000 (1970??)
Ọsayin	Osayin, Ọsayin	Magongo (town name)	3,000 (1970??)
Eni			3,000 (1970??)

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio- velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	Voiceless	p	t		k	k͡p
Plosive	Voiced	b	d		g	ɡ͡b
Affricate	Voiceless			t͡ʃ
Affricate	Voiced			d͡ʒ
Fricative	Voiceless	f	s				h
Fricative	Voiced		z
Trill			r
Approximant			l	j		w

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low		ä

Each vowel also has a nasal equivalent.^[4]

References

^ Oko at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013).
^ Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
^ Atoyebi, Joseph Dele (2009). A Reference Grammar of Oko. Umuneke-Okpala, Nigeria: Leipzig University Press.

[e18-1] Oko at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[ASJP-4-2] Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013).

[BlenchAtlas4-3] Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.

[4] Atoyebi, Joseph Dele (2009). A Reference Grammar of Oko. Umuneke-Okpala, Nigeria: Leipzig University Press.

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