The Anii Language: A Progressive Language Island in Togo and Benin

Abstract

The Anii language of Togo and Benin is surrounded by essentially unrelated languages because the ancestors of the current speakers migrated into their modern territory within the last few centuries. This paper presents what is known about the cultural history and current social context of the Anii people and argues that Anii is a progressive language island despite a social situation that is different from that of many traditional language islands. The analysis of Anii linguistic structures (including comparisons with related languages and the presentation of relevant dialect differences) provides further support for the analysis of Anii as a language island. Much of the data, particularly the comparative analyses, presented here have never been previously available to scholars. This paper thus sheds new light on a little-known language with a complicated history that is not yet well understood, as well as potentially expanding the definition of the term ‘language island’.