Gokana (Gòkánà) is an Ogoni language spoken by some 130,000 people in Rivers State, Nigeria.

Gokana
Native toNigeria
RegionGokana, Rivers State
Native speakers
(100,000 cited 1989)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3gkn
Glottologgoka1239

Phonology

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Gokana has been argued to lack syllables, a radical claim because syllables are traditionally considered to be universal. According to Hyman (1983), Gokana "does not organise its consonants and vowels into syllables." Hyman later amended his claim to say that "the syllable plays at best a minor role in the prosodic organisation of Gokana" and is perhaps not activated to express any generalisations in the language.[2]

Writing system

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Gokana alphabet
Uppercase letters A B D E F G Gb Gy I K Kp Ky L M N Ng Nv Ny O P S T V Z
Lowercase letters a b d e f g gb gy i k kp ky l m n ng nv ny o p s t v z

Nasal vowels are indicated by a tilde and tones are indicated by an acute or grave accent:

  • The high tone is indicated by an acute accent : á, ã́, é, ẹ́, ẽ́, í, ĩ́, ó, ọ́, ṍ, ú, ṹ, ḿ ;
  • The low tone is indicated by a grave accent  : à, ã̀, è, ẹ̀, ẽ̀, ì, ĩ̀, ò, ọ̀, õ̀, ù, ũ̀, m̀ ;
  • The middle tone is indicated with no diacritic.

References

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  1. ^ Gokana at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)  
  2. ^ Hyman, Larry (May 2011). "Does Gokana really have no syllables? Or: what's so great about being universal?". Phonology. 28 (1): 55–57. doi:10.1017/S0952675711000030. S2CID 31005113.