Koyraboro Senni

Koyraboro Senni
Native to	Mali
Region	East of Timbuktu, Gao
Ethnicity	850,000 (2007?)[1]
Native speakers	430,000 (2007)[2] 300,000 monolingual (2007)[2]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Songhay Southern Koyraboro Senni
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ses
Glottolog	koyr1242[3]
Location of Songhay languages[4] Northwest Songhay:   Korandje   Koyra Chiini   Tadaksahak   Tasawaq   Tagdal Eastern Songhay:   Tondi Songway Kiini   Humburi Senni   Koyraboro Senni   Zarma language   Dendi

Koyraboro Senni (or Eastern Songhay, or Koroboro Senni, or Koyra Senni) is a member of the Songhay languages of Mali and is spoken by some 400,000 people along Niger River from 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 Fulani or 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.

References

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

External links

1. Koyraboro Senni at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
2. Koyraboro Senni at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Koyraboro Senni Songhai". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
4. This map is based on classification from Glottolog and data from Ethnologue.

• Open Language Archives Community
• Songhay Language Description