Gen language
| Gen | |
|---|---|
| Mina, Popo | |
| gɛn | |
| Native to | Benin, Togo [1] |
Native speakers | 620,000 (2019–2021)[1] |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gej |
| Glottolog | genn1243 |
Gen (also called Gɛ̃, Gɛn gbe, Gebe, Guin, Mina, Mina-Gen, and Popo) is a Gbe language spoken in the southeast of Togo in the Maritime Region. Like the other Gbe languages, Gen is a tonal language. It was misidentified as the 'Arda' language isolate of South America.[2]
History
[edit ]The Gen language is spoken by the Gen-Mina people, who originated from Accra and Elmina in Ghana. The Mina from Elmina migrated because of the Denkyira wars of aggression, while the Gen [fr] came over from Accra after their defeat in the Akwamu wars. The two groups intermingled with the indigenous Ewe, resulting in their Ewe dialect having words borrowed from Fanti, Ga-Adangbe and various European languages.[citation needed ]
The Gen language is mutually intelligible with Ewe and is considered to be one of the many dialects of Ewe.[citation needed ]
There were 476,000 Gen-speakers in Togo in 2019, and 144,000 in Benin in 2021.[1]
Phonology
[edit ]Vowels
[edit ]The vowels of Mina (Gen) are as follows:[3]
a ã e ɛ ẽ i ĩ o ɔ õ u ũ
Orthography
[edit ]The orthography is defined in the Alphabet des langues nationales of Benin. In the 1990 edition, Gen shared its alphabet with Waci.[4] In the 2008 edition, Gen has its own alphabet (without F with hook ⟨ƒ⟩).
| Uppercase | A | B | C | D | Ɖ | E | Ɛ | F | G | GB | Ɣ | H | X | I | J | K | KP | L | M | N | NY | Ŋ | Ɔ | P | S | T | U | Ʋ | V | W | Y | Z |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowercase | a | b | c | d | ɖ | e | ɛ | f | g | gb | ɣ | h | x | i | j | k | kp | l | m | n | ny | ŋ | ɔ | p | s | t | u | ʋ | v | w | y | z |
Nasalisation is indicated with a n after the vowel (⟨an ɔn ɛn in un⟩).
References
[edit ]- ^ a b c Gen at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
- ^ Campbell, L. (2024). "Phantom, False, and Spurious Languages of South America". The Indigenous Languages of the Americas: History and Classification. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-767346-1 . Retrieved 2025年03月01日.
- ^ Ako, Léopold (1969). Grammaire Mina: complète (in French).
- ^ Centre national de linguistique appliquée (CENALA) (1990). Alphabet des langues nationales (2 ed.). Cotonou: CENALA. hdl:10625/6700.
- ^ Centre national de linguistique appliquée (CENALA) (2008). Alphabet des langues nationales béninoises (6 ed.). Cotonou: CENALA avec le concours de l'Initiative francophone pour la formation à distance des maîtres (IFADEM).
Sources
[edit ]- Kangni, Atah-Ekoué (1989) La syntaxe du Gẽ: étude syntaxique d'un parler Gbe: le Gẽ du Sud-Togo. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
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