Fon language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Fon | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fon gbè | ||
| Spoken in | Benin, Togo | |
| Total speakers | 1.7 million | |
| Language family | Niger-Congo | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | fon | |
| ISO 639-3 | fon | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Fon (native name Fon gbè, pronounced [fɔ̃̄ɡ͡bè]) is part of the Gbe language cluster and belongs to the Volta-Niger branch of the Niger-Congo languages. Fon is spoken mainly in Benin by approximately 1.7 million speakers, by the Fon people. Like the other Gbe languages, Fon is an analytic language with an SVO basic word order.
[edit] Phonology
Fon has seven oral vowel phonemes and seven nasal vowel phonemes.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i ĩ | u ũ | |
| Close-Mid | e ẽ | o õ | |
| Open-mid | ɛ ɛ̃ | ɔ ɔ̃ | |
| Open | a ã |
While /ẽ/ and /õ/ are phonemes, they are always realized as [ɛ̃] and [ɔ̃], respectively.
[edit] References
- ^ Claire Lefebvre; Anne-Marie Brousseau (2002). A Grammar of Fongbe. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 15–29. ISBN 3110173603.
[edit] External links
- Ethnologue report for Fon
- Fon is Fun!
- A Facebook application to use and learn the Fon language, developed by Jolome.com
- La langue Fongbe du Bénin
- Fon.eu - The Fon People
- The first blog totally in Fongbe. An access to a Fongbe forum is given
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