The standardized Fon language is part of the Fon cluster of languages inside the Eastern Gbe languages. Hounkpati B Christophe Capo groups Agbome, Kpase, Goun, Maxi and Weme 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 exists for Goun, Gen, and other languages of the country. To date, there are about 53 different dialects of the Fon language spoken throughout Benin.
Phonology
Fon has seven oral vowel phonemes and five nasal vowel phonemes. only occurs in linguistic mimesis and loanwords, though often it is replaced by in the latter, as in cɔ́fù 'shop'. Several of the voiced occlusives only occur before oral vowels, while the homorganicnasal stops only occur before nasal vowels, indicating that and are allophones. is in free variation with ; Fongbe therefore can be argued to have no phonemic nasal consonants, a pattern rather common in West Africa. and are also nasalized before nasal vowels; may be assimilated to before. The only consonant clusters in Fon have or as the second consonant; after alveolars, is optionally realized as : klɔ́ 'to wash', wlí 'to catch', jlò 'to want'. ;Tone Fon has two phonemic tones, and. is realized as rising after a voiced consonant. Basic disyllabic words have all four possibilities: –, –, –, and –. In longer phonological words, such as verb and noun phrases, a high tone tends to persist until the final syllable; if that syllable has a phonemic low tone, it becomes falling. Low tones disappear between high tones, but their effect remains as a downstep. Rising tones simplify to after and to before. In Ouidah, a rising or falling tone is realized as a mid tone. For example, mǐ 'we, you', phonemically high-tone but phonetically rising because of the voiced consonant, is generally mid-tone in Ouidah.
Orthography
The Fon alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, with the addition of the letters Ɖ/ɖ, Ɛ/ɛ, and Ɔ/ɔ, and the digraphs gb, hw, kp, ny, and xw.
Circumflex accent marks the rising and falling tone: côfù
Macron marks the neutral tone: kān
Tones are fully marked in reference books, but not always marked in other writing. The tone marking is phonemic, and the actual pronunciation may be different according to the syllable's environment.
Radio programs in Fon are broadcast on ORTB channels. Television programs in Fon is shown on the La Beninoise satellite TV channel. French used to be the only language of education in Benin, but in the second decade of the twenty first century, the government is experimenting with teaching some subjects in Benin schools in the country's local languages, among them Fon.
