Ewe language

Lore & Background

Ewe is a dialect cluster within the Gbe languages, which also include Gen, Aja, Kotafon, Mina, and Xwla, spoken from southern Ghana to Togo, Benin, and western Nigeria. All Gbe languages share at least some mutual intelligibility. The German Africanist Diedrich Hermann Westermann published many dictionaries and grammars of Ewe and other Gbe languages. Other linguists who have worked on Ewe include Gilbert Ansre, Herbert Stahlke, Nick Clements, Roberto Pazzi, Felix K. Ameka, Alan Stewart Duthie, Hounkpati B. Capo, Enoch Aboh, and Chris Collins.

Reader's Guide

Ewe is notable for its complex phonology, including a contrast between [f] and [ɸ] and between [v] and [β], and for being one of the few languages with such distinctions. It has three tone registers (High, Mid, Low) and contour tones, though most dialects have only two distinctive registers. Ewe is a subject–verb–object language with postpositions, and it is well known for having logophoric pronouns, which disambiguate indirect discourse. The language uses a day-naming system for children, with names based on the day of birth, and a naming ceremony seven days after birth. Ewe has a rich system of serial verb constructions and uses a negation pattern with a me- prefix and a sentence-final o. The first novel written in Ewe is The Tragedy of Agbezuge by Sam J. Obianim, and a notable play is The Fifth Landing Stage by Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo.

Did You Know?

• Ewe contrasts [f] vs. [ɸ] and [v] vs. [β], a rare distinction among languages.
• Ewe uses logophoric pronouns to indicate the source of a reported statement in indirect discourse.
• The Ewe naming system gives children a first name based on the day of the week they were born.
• Ewe is a national language in Togo and a government-backed regional language in Ghana.