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Aja
Adja, Hwè
Native to	Benin, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, Gabon
Ethnicity	Aja people
Native speakers	1.28 million (2012–2021)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Kwa Gbe Aja
Dialects	Dogbo Hwe Tado Sikpi Tala
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Benin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ajg
Glottolog	ajab1235
The distribution of the major Gbe dialect areas (after Capo 1988, 1991)

The Aja language (also called Adja or Ajagbe) is a Gbe language spoken by the Aja people of Benin and Togo.^[2]: 217 It is also reported to be spoken in Ghana, Nigeria and Gabon.

It is related to other Gbe languages such as Ewe, Mina, Fon, and the Phla–Pherá languages.

A 1996 sociolinguistic survey found Adja speakers spread out around the Mono River in the Togo-Benin border region, and extending eastward to the Kouffo River in Benin. Within Benin, Adja speakers mostly live in villages whose residents speak a variety of languages, not only Adja.^{[3]: 5–6, 33} 1.2 million people spoke Adja according to a 2023 estimate.^[2]: 217

Adja is not generally a language of formal instruction, though at least one primary school in Benin teaches bilingually, using Adja alongside French.^[4] Informal education and literacy classes in Adja are more common, and began to be offered in 1977 in Benin. An alphabetic writing system for Adja was introduced in the 1960s and revised in the 1970s. The Beninese government designed primers for Adja literacy in the 1990s.^{[3]: 9–11}

Adja uses a Latin script alphabetic writing system, including some characters from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The Adja letters generally correspond to their IPA pronunciations, with a few exceptions: ⟨h⟩, ⟨x⟩, ⟨sh⟩, ⟨y⟩ correspond to [ʁ], [χ], [ʃ], and [j] respectively.^[5]: viii

The basic word order of Adja is subject–auxiliary-verb–object. Focused elements in an utterance (e.g., new or important information) can be marked either syntactically (moving the focus to the front of the utterance, with an optional focus marker yí), or morphologically (with a range of particles).^{[2]: 218–222}