9. Sociophonetic variation in urban Ewe

Due to fast-paced urbanization and rural exodus, speakers of different dialects of the Ewe language are thrown together in Lome, the capital city of Togo. Using various theoretical approaches that attempt to address such phenomena, I provide a quantitative analysis suggesting that urban Ewe in southern Togo is undergoing processes of leveling and simplification. I investigate the use of bilabial fricatives, alveolar affricates, and reduplication (as dependent variables) to show that ethnicity, community setting, and gender are influential factors in Ewe language variation in southern Togo.

Published online: 15 April 2009
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.25.11nog