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" () 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. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013).
Geographical 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).
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??)
Orthography 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.
Phonology
Consonants
LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarLabio-velarGlottalNasalPlosive VoicelessVoicedAffricate VoicelessVoicedFricative VoicelessVoicedTrillApproximant
Vowels
FrontCentralBackCloseClose-midOpen-midLow
Each vowel also has a nasal equivalent.
See also Oko word list (Wiktionary)
References