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Koyraboro Senni

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Koyraboro Senni
كࣷيْرَبࣷرࣷ سٜنِّ
Native toMali
RegionEast of Timbuktu, Gao
Ethnicity(850,000 (2007?)[1])
Native speakers
430,000 (2007)[2]
300,000 monolingual (2007)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3ses
Glottologkoyr1242
Location of Songhay languages[3]

Northwest Songhay:

  Tagdal

Eastern Songhay:

  Koyraboro Senni
  Dendi

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.

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

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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

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Consonants

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Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive/
Affricate
voiceless p[a] t t͡ʃ k ʔ[b]
voiced b d d͡ʒ ɡ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ[c] h
voiced z ʒ[c]
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Lateral l
Trill r
Approximant w j
  1. ^ /p/ is uncommon, occurring mainly from loanwords.
  2. ^ /ʔ/ only occurs as a result of unassimilated Arabic words.
  3. ^ a b [ʃ ʒ] only occur as a palatalization of fricatives /s z/ preceding front vowels /e i/.

Vowels

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Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

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

Orthography

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

Koyraboro Senni Songhay Latin Alphabet (Mali)[4]
A a B b C c D d E e F f G g H h I i J j K k L l M m N n
[a] [b] [t͡ʃ] [d] [e] [f] [ɡ] [h] [i] [d͡ʒ] [k] [l] [m] [n]
Ɲ ɲ Ŋ ŋ O o P p R r S s Š š T t U u W w Y y Z z Ž 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]

Koyraboro Senni Arabic alphabet (Mali)[5][6]
Arabic
(Latin)
[IPA]
ا
‌( - )
[]/[ʔ]
ب
(B b)
[b]
ت
(T t)
[t]
ٺ
(C c)
[t͡ʃ]
ث
(S s)
[s]
ج
(J j)
[d͡ʒ]
Arabic
(Latin)
[IPA]
ح
(H h)
[h]
خ
(Kh kh)
[x]
ݗ
(Ŋ ŋ)
[ŋ]
د
(D d)
[d]
ذ
(Z z)
[z]
ر
(R r)
[r]
Arabic
(Latin)
[IPA]
ز
(Z z)
[z]
ژ
(Ž ž)
[ʒ]
س
(S s)
[s]
ش
(Š š)
[ʃ]
ص
(S s)
[s]
ض
(D d)
[d]
Arabic
(Latin)
[IPA]
ط
(T t)
[t]
ظ
(Z z)
[z]
ع
( - )
[ʔ]
غ
(G g)
[ɡ]
ݝ
(G g)
[ɡ]
ڢ
(F f)
[f]
Arabic
(Latin)
[IPA]
ݠ
(P p)
[p]
ڧ
(K k)
[k]
ك
(K k)
[k]
ل
(L l)
[l]
م
(M m)
[m]
ن
(N n)
[n]
Arabic
(Latin)
[IPA]
ه
(H h)
[h]
و
(W w)
[w]
ؤ
( - )
[ʔ]
ي
(W w)
[j]
ئ
( - )
[ʔ]

(Ɲ ɲ)
[ɲ]
Vowel at the beginning of a word
A E I O U
Short Vowels
اَ اٜ اِ اࣷ اُ
Long Vowels
Aa Ee Ii Oo Uu
آ اٜيـ / اٜي اِيـ / اِي اࣷو اُو
Vowel at the middle or end of a word
a e i o u
Short Vowels
◌َ ◌ٜ ◌ِ ◌ࣷ ◌ُ
Long Vowels
aa ee ii oo uu
◌َا / ◌َـا ◌ٜيـ / ◌ٜـيـ
◌ٜي / ◌ٜـي
◌ِيـ / ◌ِـيـ
◌ِي / ◌ِـي
◌ࣷو / ◌ࣷـو ◌ُو / ◌ُـو

References

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  • Jeffrey Heath: Grammar of Koyraboro (Koroboro) Senni, the Songhay of Gao. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Köln 1999. ISBN 978-3-89645-106-4
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  1. ^ Koyraboro Senni at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009) Closed access icon
  2. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Chtatou, Mohamed (1992). Using Arabic script in writing the languages of the peoples of Muslim Africa. Institute of African Studies, Mohammed V University.
  6. ^ a b Kew, Jonathan (2 June 2003). Proposal to encode Arabic-script letters for African languages (PDF).