Togo’s geography is quite unique—it’s one of the narrowest countries in the world, never measuring more than 115 kilometers (71 miles) between its two neighbors, Ghana and Benin. Despite this, the country is home to more than 8 million people from about 40 different ethnic groups, with estimates pinning the number of languages spoken in the country at 39. With such a diverse population, Togo needs a lingua franca to facilitate interethnic communication, which is where French, the country’s sole official language, comes in. The indigenous Ewe and Kabiyé are designated as national languages and promoted in education and media. But among the many other languages of Togo, we find Gen.
Gen goes by a myriad of names, including Gɛ̃, Gɛn Gbe, Gebe, Guin, Mina, Mina-Gen, and Popo. With around 200,000 speakers, it’s certainly not Togo’s biggest language, but it still accounts for a sizable portion of the narrow country’s population. Another 130,000 speakers live in neighboring Benin, putting the total number of Gen speakers at about 330,000. Unfortunately, in Africa, where many languages are severely underserved, Gen lacks many resources and access to translation services, but we here at TranslationServices.com want to tackle this issue with our dedicated Gen translation services.
If you’re interested in Gen translation services, why not send us a message to request a free quote today?
What kind of language is Gen?
The Gen and Mina peoples are believed to have migrated eastward to Togo and Benin from the Accra and Elmina areas of modern-day Ghana, respectively, due to wars in the region. The two ethnic groups intermingled not only with each other but also with the indigenous Ewe who already lived in modern-day Togo, giving rise to the Gen language we know today (and explaining why it’s sometimes called Mina).
Gen is a Gbe language, a branch of Niger–Congo languages nestled along the coast of Togo and Benin, as well as eastern Ghana and western Nigeria. Ewe, the largest member of the Gbe language subfamily, is mutually intelligible with Gen, so some people classify Gen as a dialect of Ewe, though linguists typically consider it a distinct language. Gen uses a basic word order of subject-verb-object, just like English, and is an isolating language, which means it features minimal inflection. This might make it sound simpler than inflection-heavy languages like those in the Bantu subfamily, but the lack of inflection conversely makes word order and particles all the more important to get right.
A professional Gen translation team ready to work for you
We invite all those who need Gen translation services to work with our team of passionate, native-speaking Gen translators. We’re confident that we can accommodate any Gen translation needs you may have because we’ve sourced our translators from all across the Gen-speaking area in Togo and Benin, covering all possible dialects, and our translators come from a plethora of backgrounds with translation experience in various projects. Combined with our ability to translate seamlessly both to and from Gen, we’re certain we can help, no matter what your project is.
Let’s say you run a business, and you want to set up a branch on the southeastern coast of Togo. Our Gen translators can help you not only prepare employment contracts to hire local Gen speakers but also produce catchy marketing materials that expertly capture the attention of Gen speakers. Our team is similarly here for local Gen businesspeople who need translations from Gen to make a splash on the international market. Our areas of translation we can help with include academic or educational translation—perfect for researchers who want to communicate with local Gen-Mina people—and literary translation, with which we can help both Gen authors bring their works to the global stage and international creators tailor their stories for an eager Gen-speaking audience.
To get the most out of your Gen translation project, contact our team today!