Oko language
{{Short description|Niger–Congo dialect cluster spoken in Nigeria}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Oko
| nativename = {{lang|oks|ɔ̀kɔ́}}
| states = Nigeria
| region = Kogi State
| speakers = 40,000
| date = 2006
| ref = e18
| familycolor = Niger-Congo
| fam2 = Atlantic–Congo
| fam3 = Volta–Niger
| fam4 = {{sm|noi}}
| iso3 = oks
| glotto = okoe1238
| glottorefname = Oko-Eni-Osayen
| dia1 = Oko
| dia2 = Eni
| dia3 = Osayen
| altname = Ogori-Magongo
}}
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" ({{sm|noi}}) group of Niger–Congo languages. The language is spoken in and around the towns of Ogori and Magongo in southwestern Kogi State 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.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. [https://asjp.clld.org/static/WorldLanguageTree-004.zip ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013)].
Geographical distribution
According to Ethnologue, Oko is spoken in:
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).{{Cite book|title=An Atlas of Nigerian Languages|last=Blench|first=Roger|publisher=Kay Williamson Educational Foundation|year=2019|edition=4th|location=Cambridge}}
| class="wikitable sortable"
! 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=
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
!colspan=2| !Labial !Alveolar !Palatal !Velar !Labio- !Glottal | |
| colspan=2|Nasal
|{{IPAlink|m}} |{{IPAlink|n}} | | | | | |
|---|---|
| rowspan=2|Plosive | Voiceless
|{{IPAlink|p}} |{{IPAlink|t}} | |{{IPAlink|k}} |{{IPAlink|k͡p}} | |
| Voiced
|{{IPAlink|b}} |{{IPAlink|d}} | |{{IPAlink|g}} |{{IPAlink|ɡ͡b}} | | |
| rowspan=2|Affricate | Voiceless
| | |{{IPAlink|t͡ʃ}} | | | |
| Voiced
| | |{{IPAlink|d͡ʒ}} | | | | |
| rowspan=2|Fricative | Voiceless
|{{IPAlink|f}} |{{IPAlink|s}} | | | |{{IPAlink|h}} |
| Voiced
| |{{IPAlink|z}} | | | | | |
| colspan=2|Trill
| |{{IPAlink|r}} | | | | | |
| colspan=2|Approximant
| |{{IPAlink|l}} |{{IPAlink|j}} | |{{IPAlink|w}} |
=Vowels=
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! !Front !Central !Back |
| Close
|{{IPAlink|i}} | |{{IPAlink|u}} |
|---|
| Close-mid
|{{IPAlink|e}} | |{{IPAlink|o}} |
| Open-mid
|{{IPAlink|ɛ}} | |{{IPAlink|ɔ}} |
| Low
| |{{IPAlink|ä}} | |
Each vowel also has a nasal equivalent.{{cite book |last=Atoyebi |first=Joseph Dele |year=2009 |title=A Reference Grammar of Oko |location=Umuneke-Okpala, Nigeria |publisher=Leipzig University Press}}
See also
- Oko word list (Wiktionary)