Koyra Chiini language
| Koyra Chiini | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Mali |
| Region | Niger River |
Native speakers | (200,000 cited 1999)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | khq |
| Glottolog | koyr1240 |
Koyra Chiini ([kojra tʃiːni], figuratively "town language"), or Western Songhay, is a member of the Songhay languages spoken in Mali by about 200,000 people (in 1999) along the Niger River in Timbuktu and upriver from it in the towns of Diré, Tonka, Goundam, and Niafunké as well as in the Saharan town of Araouane to its north. In this area, Koyra Chiini is the dominant language and the lingua franca, although minorities speaking Hassaniya Arabic, Tamasheq, and Fulfulde are found. Djenné Chiini [dʒɛnːɛ tʃiːni], the dialect spoken in Djenné, is mutually comprehensible, but has noticeable differences - in particular, two extra vowels (/ɛ/ and /ɔ/) and syntactic differences related to focalization.
East of Timbuktu, Koyra Chiini gives way relatively abruptly to another Songhay language, Koyraboro Senni.
Unlike most Songhai languages, Koyra Chiini has no phonemic tones, and has subject–verb–object word order rather than subject–object–verb. It has changed original z to j.[2]
References
- ^ Koyra Chiini at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Heath, Jeffrey (1999). A grammar of Koyra Chiini : the Songhay of Timbuktu. Berlin ; New York: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3110162851.
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- ed. Jeffrey Heath, Wilhelm J. Möhlig, 1998. Texts in Koyra Chiini Songhay of Timbuktu, Mali. Ruediger Koeppe. ISBN 3-89645-260-6.
- Jeffrey Heath, Dictionnaire Songhay-Anglais-Français: Tome 1 - Koyra Chiini, ou "songhay de Tombouctou", Tome 2 - Djenné Chiini, ou "songhay de Djenné". L'Harmattan:Paris 1998. ISBN 2-7384-6726-1.
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