Is Gengbè a Language or an Éwégbè Dialect? A Historical and Dialectological Study

This study focuses on Gengbè, a language of the Gbè continuum spoken in southern Togo and Benin. It falls within the framework of dialectology/dialectometry and raises the issue of the status of Gengbè within the continuum. While some consider Gengbè to be a dialectal variant of Ewégbè, others consider it to be a distinct language with its own system. In view of this divergence, the problem of the sociolinguistic status of Gengbè vis-à-vis Ewegbè arises sharply. Based on the hypothesis that a dialectological /dialectometric study makes it possible to determine the sociolinguistic status of languages, this article sets out to define the status of Gengbè within Gbè on the basis of dialectometric, dialectological and historical data. The theoretical framework of reference for this study is (Guiter’s) dialectometry and (Capo’s) comparative approach. The dialectometric theory was used to determine the linguistic distance between the two languages studied. The comparative approach was used to identify similarities and differences between Ewégbè and Gengbè. Data collection was based on a dual methodological approach, namely fieldwork and documentary research. On the basis of the analysis and interpretation of dialectometric, dialectological and historical data, we have come to the conclusion that Gengbè is a dialectal variant of Ewégbè that it is widely spoken in Southern Togo and has been koineised in Lomé. Keywords: Gengbè, Lexical Distance, Linguistic Distance, Phonological Equivalence, Lexical Equivalence