Gen language

Gen
Gen
Mina, Popo
gɛn
Native to	Benin, Togo
Native speakers	620,000 (2019–2021)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta–Congo languages Kwa Gbe Gen; ; ; ; ;
Official status
Recognised minority; language in	Benin
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

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

Vowels

The vowels of Mina (Gen) are as follows:^[3]

a ã e ɛ ẽ i ĩ o ɔ õ u ũ

Orthography

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⟩).

Alphabet^[5]
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)
^ 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 2025-03-01.
^ 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).