Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 ewe · ee
Ewe Language Eʋegbe
Ewe is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 3.2 million people in 2 countries. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Ewe is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
About the Ewe language
Ewe (Eʋegbe) is spoken by about 3.2 million people, which makes it the 236th most spoken language in the world — just behind Bundeli (3.2 million) and ahead of Fon (3.2 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Eweic group within the Kwa Volta-Congo branch.
Where is Ewe spoken?
Ewe is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in Ghana (3.8 million) and Togo (1.5 million).
Share of the population that speaks Ewe: Ghana 11% (3.8 million) and Togo 17% (1.5 million).
Ewe is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in Ghana.
Writing system and status
Ewe is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Fon, Ci Gbe, Defi Gbe, Gun, Aja (Benin), Akan and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 ee, ISO 639-3 ewe.
Frequently asked questions about Ewe
How many people speak Ewe?
Where is Ewe spoken?
What language family does Ewe belong to?
What is Ewe called in Ewe?
Is Ewe an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.