| Oko | |
|---|---|
| Ogori-Magongo | |
| ɔ̀kɔ́ | |
| Native to | Nigeria |
| Region | Kogi State |
Native speakers | 40,000 (2006) |
| Dialects |
|
| 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. The language is spoken in and around the towns of Ogori and Magongo in southwestern Kogi State and Edo state borders.
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.
According to Ethnologue, Oko is spoken in:
Oko is a dialect cluster consisting of (Ethnologue):
Below is a list of Ọkọ–Eni–Ọsayin language cluster names, populations, and locations from Blench (2019).
| 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??) |
Oko is a language without a working orthography. Although some educated members of the Oko speaking communities have at one time or the other proposed an orthography for the language, for example, Akerejola (1971) and Adegbija (1993), none of their proposals have been duly given much recognition due to lack of literacy in the language.: 55
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio- velar |
Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Plosive | Voiceless | p | t | k | k͡p | ||
| Voiced | b | d | g | ɡ͡b | |||
| Affricate | Voiceless | t͡ʃ | |||||
| Voiced | d͡ʒ | ||||||
| Fricative | Voiceless | f | s | h | |||
| Voiced | z | ||||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Low | ä |
Each vowel also has a nasal equivalent.