Fon language
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| Fon | |
|---|---|
| fɔ̀ngbè | |
| Native to | Benin, Nigeria, Togo |
| Ethnicity | Fon people |
Native speakers | 2.3 million (2019–2021)Template:Ethnologue26 does not exist |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin Gbékoun | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Script error: No such module "flag". |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | Template:ISO 639-2 |
| ISO 639-3 | fon – inclusive codeIndividual codes: guw – Gunmxl – Maxi Gbewem – Weme Gbe |
| Glottolog | fonn1241 Fon language |
| ELP | Template:Endangered Languages Project |
| Linguasphere | Template:Infobox language/lingualist |
| Template:Infobox language/lingualist | |
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| Template:Infobox language/lingualist | |
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| Person | Fon |
|---|---|
| People | Fon-nu |
| Language | fɔ̀ngbè |
| Country | Danhɔmɛ |
Fon (Script error: No such module "Lang"., Script error: No such module "IPA".[1]), also known as Dahomean or Beninese, is the language of the Fon people. It belongs to the Gbe group within the larger Atlantic–Congo family. It is primarily spoken in Benin, as well as in Nigeria and Togo by approximately 2.3 million speakers.[2] Like the other Gbe languages, Fon is an isolating language with a SVO basic word order.
Cultural and legal status
In Benin, French is the official language, and Fon and other indigenous languages, including Yom and Yoruba, are classified as national languages.[3]
Dialects
The standardized Fon language is part of the Fon cluster of languages inside the Eastern Gbe languages. Hounkpati B Christophe Capo groups Agbome, Kpase, Gun, Maxi and Weme (Ouémé) in the Fon dialect cluster, although other clusterings are suggested. Standard Fon is the primary target of language planning efforts in Benin, although separate efforts exist for Gun, Gen, and other languages of the country.[4]
Phonology
Vowels
Fon has seven oral vowel phonemes and five nasal vowel phonemes.
| Oral | Nasal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| front | back | front | back | |
| Close | i | u | ĩ | ũ |
| Close-Mid | e | o | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | ɛ̃ | ɔ̃ |
| Open | a | ã | ||
Consonants
| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Labial -velar | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Nasal" | m ~ b | n ~ ɖ | ||||||||
| Occlusive | (p) | t | d | tʃ | dʒ | k | ɡ | kp | ɡb | |
| Fricative | f | v | s | z | x | ɣ | xʷ | ɣʷ | ||
| Approximant | l ~ ɾ | ɲ ~ j | w | |||||||
Script error: No such module "IPA". occurs in only linguistic mimesis and loanwords but is often replaced by Script error: No such module "IPA". in the latter, as in cɔ́fù 'shop'. Several of the voiced occlusives occur before only oral vowels, and the homorganic nasal stops occur before only nasal vowels, which indicates that Script error: No such module "IPA". and Script error: No such module "IPA". are allophones. Script error: No such module "IPA". is in free variation with Script error: No such module "IPA". and so Fong can be argued to have no phonemic nasal consonants, a pattern rather common in West Africa.[a] Script error: No such module "IPA". is nasalized (to Script error: No such module "IPA".) before nasal vowels, and may assimilate to Script error: No such module "IPA". before Script error: No such module "IPA".. Script error: No such module "IPA". is sometimes also nasalized.[<span title="Script error: No such module "decodeEncode".">clarification needed]
The only consonant clusters in Fon have Script error: No such module "IPA". or Script error: No such module "IPA". as the second consonant. After (post)alveolars, Script error: No such module "IPA". is optionally realized as Script error: No such module "IPA".: Script error: No such module "Lang". 'to wash', Script error: No such module "Lang". 'to catch', Script error: No such module "Lang". Script error: No such module "IPA". 'to want'.
Tone
Fon has two phonemic tones: high and low. High is realized as rising (low–high) after a voiced consonant. Basic disyllabic words have all four possibilities: high–high, high–low, low–high, and low–low.
In longer phonological words, such as verb and noun phrases, a high tone tends to persist until the final syllable, which, if it has a phonemic low tone, becomes falling (high–low). Low tones disappear between high tones, but their effect remains as a downstep. Rising tones (low–high) simplify to high after high (without triggering downstep) and to low before high.
In Ouidah, a rising or falling tone is realized as a mid tone. For example, Script error: No such module "Lang". 'we, you', phonemically high-tone Script error: No such module "IPA". but phonetically rising because of the voiced consonant, is generally mid-tone Script error: No such module "IPA". in Ouidah.
Orthographies
Roman alphabet
The Fon alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, with the addition of the letters Ɖ/ɖ, Ɛ/ɛ, and Ɔ/ɔ, and the digraphs gb, hw, kp, ny, and xw.[6]
| Majuscule | A | B | C | D | Ɖ | E | Ɛ | F | G | GB | H | HW | I | J | K | KP | L | M | N | NY | O | Ɔ | P | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | XW | Y | Z |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minuscule | a | b | c | d | ɖ | e | ɛ | f | g | gb | h | hw | i | j | k | kp | l | m | n | ny | o | ɔ | p | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | xw | y | z |
| Sound (IPA) | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". |
Tone marking
Tones are marked as follows:
- Acute accent marks the rising tone: xó, dó
- Grave accent marks the falling tone: ɖò, akpàkpà
- Caron marks falling and rising tone: bǔ, bǐ
- Circumflex accent marks the rising and falling tone: côfù
- Macron marks the neutral tone: kān
Tones are fully marked in reference books, but not always marked in other writing. The tone marking is phonemic, and the actual pronunciation may be different according to the syllable's environment.[7]
Gbékoun script
Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". Speakers in Benin also use a distinct script called Gbékoun that was invented by Togbédji Adigbè.[8][9] It has 24 consonants and 9 vowels, as it is intended to transcribe all the languages of Benin.
Sample text
From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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- Translation
- All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Use
Radio programs in Fon are broadcast on ORTB channels.
Television programs in Fon are shown on the La Beninoise satellite TV channel.[10]
French used to be the only language of education in Benin, but in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the government is experimenting with teaching some subjects in Benin schools in the country's local languages, among them Fon.[11][12][13]
Machine translation efforts
There is an effort to create a machine translator for Fon (to and from French), by Bonaventure Dossou (from Benin) and Chris Emezue (from Nigeria).[14] Their project is called FFR.[15] It uses phrases from Jehovah's Witnesses sermons as well as other biblical phrases as the research corpus to train a Natural Language Processing (NLP) neural net model.[16]
Notes
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- ^ This is a matter of perspective; it could also be argued that Script error: No such module "IPA". and Script error: No such module "IPA". are denasalized allophones of Script error: No such module "IPA". and Script error: No such module "IPA". before oral vowels.
References
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- ^ Höftmann & Ahohounkpanzon, p. 179
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
e26was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Language data for Benin". Translators without Borders. Retrieved 2022-10-12.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Kluge, Angela (2007). "The Gbe Language Continuum of West Africa: A Synchronic Typological Approach to Prioritizing In-depth Sociolinguistic Research on Literature Extensibility" (PDF). Language Documentation & Conservation: 182–215. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-11-11. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Claire Lefebvre; Anne-Marie Brousseau (2002). A Grammar of Fongbe. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 15–29. ISBN 3-11-017360-3.
- ^ Höftmann & Ahohounkpanzon, p. 19
- ^ Höftmann & Ahohounkpanzon, p. 20
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Teddy G. (May 5, 2021). "Vulgarisation de l'alphabet: Gbékoun sur tout le territoire national Bilan de la première phase de sensibilisation". Matin libre (in français). Archived from the original on October 18, 2023. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Alphabet " Gbékoun ": Un outil d'éveil de la conscience des peuples africains". La Nation (in français). June 21, 2021. p. 13.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."BTV - La Béninoise TV - La Béninoise des Télés | La proximité par les langues". www.labeninoisetv.net (in français). Archived from the original on 2018-07-03. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Akpo, Georges. "Système éducatif béninois : les langues nationales seront enseignées à l'école à la rentrée prochaine". La Nouvelle Tribune (in français). Archived from the original on 2019-06-21. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Reportage Afrique - Bénin : l'apprentissage à l'école dans la langue maternelle". RFI (in français). 2013-12-26. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Langues nationales dans le système scolaire : La phase expérimentale continue, une initiative à améliorer - Matin Libre" (in français). Archived from the original on 2018-07-03. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."AI in Africa: Teaching a bot to read my mum's texts". BBC News. 2020-04-29. Retrieved 2022-10-12.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Project website". ffrtranslate.com. Retrieved 2022-10-12.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Emezue, Chris Chinenye; Dossou, Femi Pancrace Bonaventure (2020). "FFR v1.1: Fon-French Neural Machine Translation". Proceedings of the Fourth Widening Natural Language Processing Workshop. Seattle, USA: Association for Computational Linguistics: 83–87. arXiv:2003.12111. doi:10.18653/v1/2020.winlp-1.21.
Bibliography
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Höftmann, Hildegard; Ahohounkpanzon, Michel (2003). Dictionnaire fon-français : avec une esquisse grammaticale. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. ISBN 3896454633. OCLC 53005906.
External links
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- A Facebook application to use and learn the Fon language, developed by Jolome.com
- The first blog totally in Fongbe. An access to a Fongbe forum is given
- Journal of West African Languages: Articles on Fon
- Manuel dahoméen : grammaire, chrestomathie, dictionnaire français-dahoméen et dahoméen-français, 1894 by Maurice Delafosse at the Internet Archive (in French)
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