Phla–Pherá languages

Additional research carried out by SIL International in the nineties corroborated many of Capo's findings and led to adjustment of some of his more tentative groupings; in particular, Phla–Pherá was divided in an eastern and a western cluster.

It is also the most linguistically diverse branch of Gbe, due partly to the existence of several geographically separated communities, but mainly because of considerable influence by several non-Gbe languages in the past.

Alada, a lect that is sometimes included in the Phla–Pherá group, is spoken in southwestern Nigeria just southeast of Benin's administrative capital Porto-Novo.

According to Capo (1988:15), the Phla–Pherá group consists of the following lects: Ayizɔ, Gbesi (gbesiin) and Kotafɔn (kógbè) are the same basic language.

Capo grouped the Phla–Pherá lects mainly on the basis of a number of shared phonological and morphological features, including the development of proto-Gbe *tʰ and *dʱ into /s/ and /z/, the retained distinction between *ɛ and *e, and the occurrence of various nominal prefixes.

Among other things, this part of Kluge's analysis confirmed the uncertainty of the classification of the Alada dialect: some possible results point to inclusion in the Fon group, while others suggest membership of one of the Phla–Pherá clusters.

Capo 1991:14ff), namely Ajra, Daxe, Gbesi, Gbokpa, Movolo, Se, and Seto, all of which Kluge (2000:32, 2005:41ff,47, 2006:74ff,79) classified as Phla–Phera.

The diversity in this subfamily is probably due in part to the fact that the various Phla–Pherá communities do not occupy one specific geographical area but are scattered along the coast of the Bight of Benin.

In a 1979 work on the history of the Gbe peoples (called Adjatado back then), the Catholic missionary Roberto Pazzi pointed out that 'three dialects emerged from the half-breeding between immigrant groups and the indigenes from Tádó: they are Gɛ̀n, Sáhwè and Xweɖá.