Gen language
Gen | |
---|---|
Mina | |
Native to | Togo, Benin |
Native speakers | (330,000 cited 1991–2006)[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.
History
The Gen-Mina originated from Accra and Elmina in Ghana. The Mina from Elmina migrated because of the Denkyira wars of aggression, while the Gen 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.
The Gen language is mutually intelligible with Ewe and is considered to be one of the many dialects of Ewe.[citation needed]
There were 200,000 Gen-speakers in Togo in 1991, and 130,000 in Benin in 2006.[1]
References
- ^ a b Gen at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Kangni, Atah-Ekoué (1989) La syntaxe du Gẽ: étude syntaxique d'un parler Gbe: le Gẽ du Sud-Togo. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
- Pages containing links to subscription-only content
- Language articles citing Ethnologue 18
- Articles with short description
- Language articles with old Ethnologue 18 speaker data
- All articles with unsourced statements
- Articles with unsourced statements from June 2022
- AC with 0 elements
- Gbe languages
- Languages of Togo
- Languages of Benin
- All stub articles
- Volta–Niger language stubs