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
'Arda' language isolate of South America.[2]
History
The Gen-Mina originated 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]
Orthography
The orthography is defined in the Alphabet des langues nationales of Benin. In the 1990 edition, Gen shared its alphabet with Waci.[3] 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
- ^ a b c Gen at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ISBN 978-0-19-767346-1. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
- ^ Centre national de linguistique appliquée (CENALA) (1990). Alphabet des langues nationales (2 ed.). Cotonou: CENALA.
- ^ 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
- Kangni, Atah-Ekoué (1989) La syntaxe du Gẽ: étude syntaxique d'un parler Gbe: le Gẽ du Sud-Togo. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
