The
Phla–Pherá (
Xwla–Xwela) languages form a possible group of
Gbe languages spoken mainly in southeastern and southwestern
Benin; some communities are found in southeastern
Togo and southwestern
Nigeria. The group, comprising about ten
varieties, was introduced by H.B. Capo in his 1988
classification of Gbe languages as one of the five main branches of Gbe. 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. Phla–Pherá is one of the smaller Gbe branches in terms of number of speakers. 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. Some of the Phla–Pherá peoples are thought to be the original inhabitants of the region having intermingled with Gbe immigrants.