Fon language
part of the Gbe language cluster and belongs to the Volta–Niger branch of the Niger–Congo languages
Fon (fɔ̀ngbè, pronounced [fɔ̃̀ɡ͡bē]), 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. 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.
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.
Phonology
Vowels
Fon has seven oral vowel phonemes and five nasal vowel phonemes.
Consonants
/p/ occurs in only linguistic mimesis and loanwords but is often replaced by /f/ in the latter, as in cɔ́fù 'shop'.
“Fon language” enters the record as part of the Gbe language cluster and belongs to the Volta–Niger branch of the Niger–Congo languages. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what language, part and cluster can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Fon language” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, language, part and cluster provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q33291. Authority coordinates are 6.500, 2.300. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fon language” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.