Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 fon
Fon Language Fɔ̀ngbè
Fon is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 3.2 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Fon is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
About the Fon language
Fon (Fɔ̀ngbè) is spoken by about 3.2 million people, which makes it the 237th most spoken language in the world — just behind Ewe (3.2 million) and ahead of Jamaican Creole English (3.2 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Fongbeic group within the Kwa Volta-Congo branch.
Where is Fon spoken?
Fon is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Benin (3.7 million).
Fon is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Fon 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 Ci Gbe, Defi Gbe, Gun, Ewe, Aja (Benin), Akan and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 fon.
Frequently asked questions about Fon
How many people speak Fon?
Where is Fon spoken?
What language family does Fon belong to?
What is Fon called in Fon?
Is Fon 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.