This dialect cluster belongs to the "Left Bank" or "Togo" Group of Kwa and is spoken in a coastal band extending about 200 kilometers inland, reaching from the Volta River in southeastern Ghana, through Togo and Benin, and into western Nigeria. While no common name is accepted by all, the term "Gbe" was proposed at the 1980 meeting at the West African Languages Conference in Cotonou (Duthie and Vlaardingerbroek, personal communication, 1985). Gbe dialects fall into five groups: Ewe (Ghana, Togo, Benin), Mina (Togo), Aja (Togo, Benin), Xwala-Xweda (Benin), and Fon-Gun (Benin, Nigeria).
Duthie (personal communication, 1980) reports that "first language speakers must number about 3 million." Voegelin and Voegelin (1977) estimate more than one million, including about 836,000 Fon speakers. Herault (1981) lists 1,600,000 Ewe (including Mina) and 800,000 Fon speakers.
Ewe is a national language in Ghana and a regional language in Ghana and Togo. Mina is a lingua franca with about one million speakers in Togo and Benin. Fon is a regional language in Benin.
Ewe has had a standardized orthography in Ghana and Togo for more than a century and has a considerable body of clerical and educational literature. While not much literature exists for Mina, Fon, and Gun, they also have an established orthography. Aja and Waci (Ewe) have more recently established orthographies (Duthie, personal communication, 1985).
From the available information it appears that three separate sets of materials be prepared: (1) Mina, the lingua franca of Togo and Benin, (2) Ewe, for southeastern Ghana, southern Togo and southwestern Benin; and (3) Fon.
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