Khana (Kana), or Ogoni proper, is the prestige variety of the Ogoni languages of Rivers State, Nigeria. It is the lingua franca of speakers of the East Ogoni languages. It is the most dominant of the 5 Ogoni languages Khana, Tee, Gokana, Eleme, Baan spoken in southern part of Rivers State.
Phonology
The phonology of Khana is as follows:[2]
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar |
Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | |||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ŋʷ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | kʷ | k͡p | ʔ | |
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡʷ | ɡ͡b | |||
| Affricate | d͡ʒ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | h | ||||
| voiced | β | z | ɣ | |||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i, ĩ | u, ũ | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ, ɛ̃ | ɔ, ɔ̃ | |
| Open | a, ã |
References
