Sociolinguistic survey of the Aja language area

This paper reports on a sociolinguistic survey conducted in the Aja speech communities of Benin and Togo. The purpose of the survey was to gather data that would help administrators of SIL Togo/Benin decide the nature and extent of SIL’s involvement among these communities.

The survey was carried out between November 12 and December 11, 1996 by Angela Kluge and Barbara Tompkins (members of SIL, Togo/Benin).

In the following sections, general background information on the Aja area will be given, followed by a description of previous linguistic research, a presentation of the research questions for the current study, and a description of the applied methodology. Following these sections, the results of the survey will be discussed. Finally, conclusions and recommendations for the Aja language program will be presented.