Koyraboro_Senni

Koyraboro Senni

Koyraboro Senni

Songhay language


Koyraboro Senni (Koroboro Senni, Koyra Senni or Gao Senni) is a member of the Songhay languages of Mali and is spoken by some 400,000 people along the Niger River from the town of Gourma-Rharous, east of Timbuktu, through Bourem, Gao and Ansongo to the Mali–Niger border.

Quick Facts Native to, Region ...

The expression "koyra-boro senn-i" denotes "the language of the town dwellers", as opposed to nomads like the Tuareg people and other transhumant people.

Although Koyraboro Senni is associated with settled towns, it is a cosmopolitan language which has spread east and west of Gao, to the Fula people living at the Mali–Niger border and to the Bozo people of the Niger River. East of Timbuktu, Koyra Senni gives way relatively abruptly to the closely related Koyra Chiini.

Geographic distribution

The majority of speakers live in the Gao Region of Mali. It is also spoken in other parts of Mali and in other countries.

Phonology

Consonants

  1. /p/ is uncommon, occurring mainly from loanwords.
  2. /ʔ/ only occurs as a result of unassimilated Arabic words.
  3. [ʃ ʒ] only occur as a palatalization of fricatives /s z/ preceding front vowels /e i/.

Vowels

More information Front, Central ...

Nasalized realizations of vowel sounds may also occur, but they are rare among different dialects.

Orthography


Table below illustrates the Latin alphabet for Koyraboro Senni in Mali, as standardized by "DNAFLA".

Koyraboro Senni Songhay Latin Alphabet (Mali)[4]
A aB bC cD dE eF fG gH hI iJ jK kL lM mN n
[a][b][t͡ʃ][d][e][f][ɡ][h][i][d͡ʒ][k][l][m][n]
Ɲ ɲŊ ŋO oP pR rS sŠ šT tU uW wY yZ zŽ ž
[ɲ][ŋ][o][p][r][s][ʃ][t][u][w][j][z][ʒ]

Table below illustrates the Arabic (Ajami) alphabet for Koyraboro Senni, based on UNESCO.BREDA report on standardization of Arabic script in published in 1987 in Bamako.[5][6]

More information Arabic(Latin) [IPA] ...
More information A, E ...
More information a, e ...

References

  • Jeffrey Heath: Grammar of Koyraboro (Koroboro) Senni, the Songhay of Gao. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Köln 1999. ISBN 978-3-89645-106-4

  1. Koyraboro Senni at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009) Closed access icon
  2. Koyraboro Senni at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  3. This map is based on classification from Glottolog and data from Ethnologue.
  4. République du Mali, Direction nationale de l’alphabétisation fonctionnelle et de la linguistique appliquée, Alphabets et règles d'orthographe des langues nationales, Bamako, DNAFLA, 1993
  5. Chtatou, M. (1992). Using Arabic script in writing the languages of the peoples of Muslim africa. Institute of African Studies.

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