Koyraboro Senni Explained

Koyraboro Senni
States:	Mali
Region:	East of Timbuktu, Gao
Ethnicity:	(850,000 (2007?))
Speakers:	430,000
Date:	2007
Ref:	e18
Speakers2:	300,000 monolingual (2007)
Familycolor:	Nilo-Saharan
Fam2:	Songhay
Fam3:	Southern
Iso3:	ses
Glotto:	koyr1242
Glottorefname:	Koyraboro Senni Songhai
Map:	Songhay languages.svg
Mapcaption:	Location of Songhay languages^[1] Northwest Songhay:Eastern Songhay:

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

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

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
	voiced	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Fricative	voiceless	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
	voiced		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Nasal		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Lateral			pronounced as /link/
Trill			pronounced as /link/
Approximant		pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Mid	pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Open		pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/

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

Orthography

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

Koyraboro Senni Songhay Latin Alphabet (Mali)^[2]

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

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

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

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

pronounced as /link/

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.^{[3] [4]}

Koyraboro Senni Arabic alphabet (Mali)

Arabic (Latin) [IPA]| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ‌(-) pronounced as /link//pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (B b) pronounced as /link/ | style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (T t) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (C c) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" bgcolor="#FFEFD5" | (S s) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (J j) pronounced as /link/|-! Arabic (Latin) [IPA]| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" bgcolor="#FFEFD5" | (H h) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" bgcolor="#FFEFD5" | (Kh kh) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (Ŋ ŋ) pronounced as /link/ | style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (D d) pronounced as /link/ | style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" bgcolor="#FFEFD5" | (Z z) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (R r) pronounced as /link/ |-! Arabic (Latin) [IPA]| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (Z z) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (Ž ž) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (S s) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (Š š) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" bgcolor="#FFEFD5" | (S s) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" bgcolor="#FFEFD5" | (D d) pronounced as /link/|-! Arabic (Latin) [IPA]| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" bgcolor="#FFEFD5" | (T t) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" bgcolor="#FFEFD5" | (Z z) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" bgcolor="#FFEFD5" | (-) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" bgcolor="#FFEFD5" | (G g) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (G g) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (F f) pronounced as /link/|-! Arabic (Latin) [IPA]| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (P p) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" bgcolor="#FFEFD5" | (K k) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (K k) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (L l) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (M m) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (N n) pronounced as /link/|-! Arabic (Latin) [IPA]| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (H h) pronounced as /link/ | style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (W w) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (-) pronounced as /link/ | style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (W w) pronounced as /link/| style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (-) pronounced as /link/ | style="width:7em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | (Ɲ ɲ) pronounced as /link/ |} Vowel at the beginning of a word A E I O U Short Vowels Long Vowels Aa Ee Ii Oo Uu Vowel at the middle or end of a word a e i o u Short Vowels Long Vowels aa ee ii oo uu References Jeffrey Heath: Grammar of Koyraboro (Koroboro) Senni, the Songhay of Gao. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Köln 1999. External links Open Language Archives Community Songhay Language Description

Notes and References

1. This map is based on classification from Glottolog and data from Ethnologue.
2. 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
3. Book: Chtatou, Mohamed . Using Arabic script in writing the languages of the peoples of Muslim Africa . Institute of African Studies, Mohammed V University . 1992.
4. Book: Kew, Jonathan . Proposal to encode Arabic-script letters for African languages . 2 June 2003 . en.