Ogoni languages


The Ogoni languages, or Kegboid languages, are the five languages of the Ogoni people of Rivers State, Nigeria.
They fall into two clusters, East and West, with a limited degree of mutual intelligibility between members of each cluster. The Ogoni think of the cluster members as separate languages.
The classification of the Ogoni languages is as follows:
  • East: Khana 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.
LanguageBranchDialectsAlternate spellingsOwn name for languageEndonymOther names Other names for languageExonymSpeakersLocation
GokanaKegboid54,000 Rivers State, Gokana–Tai–Eleme LGA
KhanaKegboidYeghe, Nyokhana, Ken–Khana, Boúe, KaaKhanaOgoni 76,713 ; 90,000 Rivers State, Khana/Oyigbo and Gokana–Tai–Eleme LGAs
ElemeWest55,000 Rivers State, Gokana–Tai–Eleme LGA
TẹẹWestTaiTèẹ̀ ̣Tèẹ̀ ̣313,000 Rivers State, Tèẹ̀ ̣Local Government Area
BaanKa-Ban, KesariBan–OgoiGoi, OgoiFewer than 5,000 Rivers State, Gokana–Tai–Eleme LGA, Ban–Ogoi plus villages