Koyraboro Senni

Koyraboro Senni
Koyraboro Senni
كࣷيْرَبࣷرࣷ سٜنِّ‎
Native to	Mali
Region	East ofTimbuktu,Gao
Ethnicity	(850,000 (2007?))
Native speakers	430,000 (2007); 300,000 monolingual (2007)
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Songhay Southern Koyraboro Senni; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ses
Glottolog	koyr1242
	Location ofSonghay languages; Northwest Songhay: Korandje Koyra Chiini Tadaksahak Tasawaq Tagdal Eastern Songhay: Tondi Songway Kiini Humburi Senni Koyraboro Senni Zarma language Songhoyboro Ciine Dendi

Koyraboro Senni(Koroboro Senni,Koyra SenniorGao Senni) is a member of theSonghay languagesofMaliand is spoken by some 400,000 people along theNiger Riverfrom the town ofGourma-Rharous,east ofTimbuktu,throughBourem,GaoandAnsongoto the Mali–Nigerborder.

The expression "koyra-boro senn-i"denotes" the language of the town dwellers ", as opposed tonomadslike theTuareg peopleand othertranshumantpeople.

Although Koyraboro Senni is associated with settled towns, it is a cosmopolitan language which has spread east and west of Gao, to theFula peopleliving at the Mali–Niger border and to theBozo peopleof the Niger River. East of Timbuktu, Koyra Senni gives way relatively abruptly to the closely relatedKoyra Chiini.

Geographic distribution

The majority of speakers live in theGao Regionof Mali. It is also spoken in other parts of Mali and in other countries.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p^[a]	t	t͡ʃ	k	ʔ^[b]
Plosive/ Affricate	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ^[c]		h
Fricative	voiced		z	ʒ^[c]
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Lateral			l
Trill			r
Approximant		w		j

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

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	iiː		uuː
Mid	eeː		ooː
Open		aaː

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

Orthography

Table below illustrates the Latin Alpha bet 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) Alpha bet for Koyraboro Senni, based onUNESCO.BREDAreport on standardization of Arabic script in published in 1987 inBamako.^[5]^[6]

Koyraboro Senni Arabic Alpha bet (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]	ࢩ‎ (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

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

External links

^Koyraboro SenniatEthnologue(16th ed., 2009)
^^a ^bKoyraboro SenniatEthnologue(18th ed., 2015)(subscription required)
^This map is based on classification from Glottolog and data from Ethnologue.
^République du Mali,Direction nationale de l’ Alpha bétisation fonctionnelle et de la linguistique appliquée, Alphabets et règles d'orthographe des langues nationales,Bamako, DNAFLA, 1993
^^a ^bChtatou, Mohamed (1992).Using Arabic script in writing the languages of the peoples of Muslim Africa.Institute of African Studies, Mohammed V University.
^^a ^bKew, Jonathan (2 June 2003).Proposal to encode Arabic-script letters for African languages(PDF).

[4] /p/ is uncommon, occurring mainly from loanwords.

[5] /ʔ/ only occurs as a result of unassimilated Arabic words.

[palatalized-6] [ʃ ʒ] only occur as a palatalization of fricatives /s z/ preceding front vowels /e i/.

[e16-1] Koyraboro SenniatEthnologue(16th ed., 2009)

[e18-2] Koyraboro SenniatEthnologue(18th ed., 2015)(subscription required)

[3] This map is based on classification from Glottolog and data from Ethnologue.

[7] République du Mali,Direction nationale de l’ Alpha bétisation fonctionnelle et de la linguistique appliquée, Alphabets et règles d'orthographe des langues nationales,Bamako, DNAFLA, 1993

[chtatou-8] Chtatou, Mohamed (1992).Using Arabic script in writing the languages of the peoples of Muslim Africa.Institute of African Studies, Mohammed V University.

[unicode-9] Kew, Jonathan (2 June 2003).Proposal to encode Arabic-script letters for African languages(PDF).

[1]

[2]

[3]

[a]

[b]

[c]

[4]

[5]

[6]

v t e Songhay languages
Northern	Tadaksahak Tagdal Korandje Tasawaq
Southern	Dendi Humburi Senni Kaado Koyra Chiini Koyraboro Senni Tondi Kiini Zarma

v t e Arabic Alpha bets
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Africa	Afrikaans Berber Fula Ajami(Adamawa Bagirmi Nigeria Fuuta Jalon Fuuta Tooro Maasina) Kibushi Hausa Ajami Kanembu Maba Serer Ajami Shimaore Songhay(Humburi Koyra Chiini Koyraboro Senni Zarma) Sorabe Tuareg(Air Tamajeq Tawellemmet) Swahili Ajami Wadaad's(Somali) Wolof
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