The language and its relevance for spatial language research

Ewe is a major dialect cluster of the language cluster that has come to be known as Gbe or Tadoid (Capo 1991, Duthie 1996). It is spoken in the south-eastern part of Ghana across to parts of southern Togo as far as and just across the Togo–Benin border by about two and a half million people. Ewe, and for that matter Gbe, belongs to the Kwa family of Niger-Congo (Stewart 1989, Williamson and Blench 2000).

Dialect variation in Ewe is quite enormous where groups of villages that are two or three kilometres apart from one another use distinct varieties. Nevertheless, the local dialects may be grouped geographically into coastal or southern dialects, e.g. Aŋlɔ,Tɔŋú etc., central, e.g. Ho, Kpedze, Dodóme, and northern dialects, e.g. Hohoe, Peki, Kpando, Fódome, etc. The central and northern dialects are collectively characterized indigenously as Ewedomegbe and may be referred to as the inland or northern dialects as opposed to the coastal or southern dialects (see Agbodeka 1997, Ansre 2000, Gavua 2000). Speakers from different localities understand each other and are aware of the peculiarities of the different areas. Add to these, a written standard that was developed in the nineteenth century based on the regional variants of the various sub-dialects (Ansre 1971, 2000, Adzomada 1979). With it has also emerged a standard colloquial variety (spoken usually with local accent), that is very widely used in cross-dialectal contact situations such as in schools, markets and churches.