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Central Delta languages

Branch of Cross River languages of Nigeria

Summary

Branch of Cross River languages of Nigeria

Field	Value
name	Central Delta
region	SE Nigeria
familycolor	Niger-Congo
fam2	Atlantic–Congo
fam3	Benue–Congo
fam4	Cross River
glotto	cent2028
glottorefname	Central Delta

The Central Delta languages are spoken in Rivers State, Bayelsa State and Nigeria. Ogbia is the most populous, with over 200,000 speakers.

The languages are Abua–Odual, Ogbia, Kugbo, Abureni, Obulom, O’chi’chi’, Ogbogolo, Ogbronuagum.

Names and locations

Below is a list of language names, populations, and locations from Blench (2019).

Language	Cluster	Dialects	Alternate spellings	Own name for language	Endonym(s)	Other names (location-based)	Other names for language	Exonym(s)	Speakers	Location(s)	Notes
Abua		Central Abuan, Ẹmughan, Ọtabha (Ọtapha), Okpeḍen		Abuan	Abua				11,000 (1963): estimated 25,000 (Faraclas 1989)	Rivers State, Ahoada LGA
Kolo cluster	Kolo					Ọgbia, Ogbinya			100,000 (1987 UBS)	Rivers State, Brass LGA
Kolo	Kolo		Agholo
Oloiḅiri	Kolo
Anyama	Kolo										no data
Obulom			Abuloma							Rivers State, Okrika LGA, Abuloma town
Oḍual		Arughaunya, Aḍibom		Ọḍual	Oḍual			Saka	8,400 (1963); 15,000 (1980 UBS)	Rivers State, Ahoada LGA	(F&J 1940) report 700 speakers, but in the 1970s, Barnwell (p.c.) found only 20 speakers living in a quarter of one town. The Odut are Mbembe speakers, and there is no separate language.
Ogbogolo									One town only	Rivers State, Ahoada LGA
Ogbrọnuagụm						Bukuma	Agum		One town only, north of Buguma	Rivers State, Degema LGA
Ọchịchị				Ọchịchị	Ọchịchị				A few speakers; moribund, since speakers have switched to Echie	Rivers State, Etche LGA, towns of Ikwerengwo and Umuebulu
Kụgbọ									2,000 (1973 SIL)	Rivers State, Brass LGA
Abureni					Mini			Mini	3 villages	Rivers State, Brass LGA	no data

References

Blench, Roger. 2008. The Central Delta languages: comparative word list and historical reconstructions.

References

Blench, Roger. (2019). "An Atlas of Nigerian Languages". Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

central-delta-languages cross-river-languages

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