Ogun is Yoruba-speaking but contains four distinct Yoruba dialect groups — Egba, Egbado (Yewa), Ijebu and Remo — plus the Awori on the Lagos border.
Major languages#
- Yoruba (Egba dialect) — Abeokuta; the dialect of Wole Soyinka and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
- Yoruba (Ijebu dialect) — Ijebu-Ode, Ago-Iwoye; archaic features.
- Yoruba (Remo dialect) — Sagamu, Iperu.
- Yoruba (Yewa / Egbado dialect) — Ilaro, Imeko-Afon.
- Yoruba (Awori dialect) — Ota border.
Minor and endangered languages#
- Egun — Yewa border with Benin Republic; cross-border community.
Lingua francas#
Yoruba universal; English in schools; Pidgin in Sango-Ota industrial belt.
Notable literary and political moments#
- The CMS press at Abeokuta (1854, by Henry Townsend) printed *Iwe Irohin* — the first newspaper in any African language (Yoruba, 1859).
- Bishop Crowther's first Yoruba grammar (1843) was compiled with Egba and Ijebu informants.
Sources & further reading#
- Ethnologue: Languages of Nigeria (SIL).
- Roger Blench, *An Atlas of Nigerian Languages* (3rd ed., 2019).
- Ayo Bamgbose, *Language and the Nation* (1991).
- UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.