Fon (language)
| Fon (Fɔngbè) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Period | 200-2006 | |
|
Formerly spoken in |
Benin , Togo | |
| speaker | about 2.2 million | |
| Linguistic classification |
||
| Official status | ||
| Other official status in |
 Benin ( national language )
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-3 |
hairdryer |
|
Fon (own name Fɔngbè ) is a language from the group of Gbe languages , which belong to the subfamily of the Kwa languages within the family of the Niger-Congo languages .
It is a major lingua franca in West Africa and is mostly spoken in Nigeria and Benin , but is also widely spoken in Ivory Coast , Burkina Faso , Niger and Togo . Fon is the main lingua franca in southern Benin and is spoken by around 1.7 million speakers.
Fon is a tonal language . The internationally best-known word from the Fon is vodun (borrowed from Voodoo ), which means "god" or "deity".
Fon is the native language of the Benin-French singer Angélique Kidjo . In some songs she also sings on Fon.
literature
- Tobias El-Fahem: Fongbe for Benin - word for word . Reise Know-How, Bielefeld 2006, ISBN 978-3-89416-369-3 .
- Hildegard Höftmann : Grammar of the Fon . Langenscheidt, Leipzig 1993, ISBN 3-324-00333-4 .