Koyraboro Senni (Koroboro Senni, Koyra Senni or Gao Senni) is a member of the

Songhay languages The Songhay, Songhai or Ayneha languages (, or ) are a group of closely related languages/dialects centred on the middle stretches of the Niger River in the West African countries of Mali, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. In particular, ...

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...

and is spoken by some 400,000 people along the

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...

from the town of Gourma-Rharous, east of

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...

, through

Bourem Bourem is a commune and small town in the Gao Region of northeastern Mali. The town sits on the left bank of the River Niger The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its ...

Gao Gao , or Gawgaw/Kawkaw, is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger, east-southeast of Timbuktu on the left bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley. For much of its history Gao was an impor ...

and

Ansongo Ansongo is a rural commune and small town in the Gao Region of eastern Mali. The town lies on the left bank of the Niger River 90 km south of Gao. It is the administrative center for the surrounding Ansongo Cercle. The commune covers an a ...

to the Mali–

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesnomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...

s like the

Tuareg people The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Alg ...

and other

transhumant Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (''vertical transhumance''), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower val ...

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 The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people ( ff, Fulɓe, ; french: Peul, links=no; ha, Fulani or Hilani; pt, Fula, links=no; wo, Pël; bm, Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region ...

living at the Mali–Niger border and to the

Bozo people The Bozo are a Mande peoples, Mande ethnic group located predominantly along the Niger River in Mali. The name ''Bozo'' is thought to derive from Bambara language, Bambara ''bo-so'' "straw house"; the people accept it as referring to the whole o ...

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 The Gao Region ( Bambara: ߜߊߏ ߘߌߣߋߖߊ tr. Gao Dineja) is a region in northeastern Mali. The capital city is Gao. Geography The region is bordered to the north by Kidal Region, to the west by Tombouctou Region and Taoudénit Region, ...

of Mali. It is also spoken in other parts of Mali and in other countries.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

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

References

Jeffrey Heath Jeffrey Heath (born November 29, 1949) is Professor of Historical Linguistics, Morphology, Arabic and Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Michigan, US. He is known particularly for his work in historical linguistics and for his extensive ...

: ''Grammar of Koyraboro (Koroboro) Senni, the Songhay of Gao.'' Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Köln 1999.

External links

Open Language Archives Community

Songhay Language Description
{{Songhay languages Songhay languages Languages of Mali