Senari languages
| Senari | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: | northern Ivory Coast, southern Mali, southern Burkina Faso |
| Linguistic classification: |
|
| Glottolog: | cent2244[1] |
|
The Senufo language area | |
The Senari languages form a central dialect cluster of the Senufo languages. They are spoken in northern Ivory Coast, southern Mali and southwest Burkina Faso by more than a million Senufo. Three varieties can be distinguished,
all with several dialects. With 860,000 speakers, Cebaara (Tyembara) is the largest of the four; it is also the central variety, spoken around the traditional Senufo center Korhogo. Senara (190,000 native speakers) of the Laraba Province of Burkina Faso is a geographic outlier; intelligibility testing with Cebaara yields ratings between 42 and 74 per cent (SIL). Nyarafolo is spoken by 50,000 in northeast Ivory Coast around Ferkessédougou; Ethnologue reports a classification as Tagwana-Djimini rather than Senari. Within Senufo as a whole, the Senari languages are thought to be most closely related to the Karaboro languages.
References
- ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Central Senufo". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.