| Koyraboro Senni | |
|---|---|
| كࣷيْرَبࣷرࣷ سٜنِّ | |
| Native to | Mali |
| Region | East ofTimbuktu,Gao |
| Ethnicity | (850,000 (2007?)[1]) |
Native speakers | 430,000 (2007)[2] 300,000 monolingual (2007)[2] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ses |
| Glottolog | koyr1242 |
 | |
Koyraboro Senni (Koroboro Senni,Koyra Senni orGao Senni) is a member of theSonghay languages ofMali and is spoken by some 400,000 people along theNiger River from the town ofGourma-Rharous, east ofTimbuktu, throughBourem,Gao andAnsongo to the Mali–Niger border.
The expression "koyra-boro senn-i" denotes "the language of the town dwellers", as opposed tonomads like theTuareg people and othertranshumant people.
Although Koyraboro Senni is associated with settled towns, it is a cosmopolitan language which has spread east and west of Gao, to theFula people living at the Mali–Niger border and to theBozo people of the Niger River. East of Timbuktu, Koyra Senni gives way relatively abruptly to the closely relatedKoyra Chiini.
The majority of speakers live in theGao Region of Mali. It is also spoken in other parts of Mali and in other countries.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p[a] | t | t͡ʃ | k | ʔ[b] |
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ[c] | h | |
| voiced | z | ʒ[c] | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||
| 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.
Table below illustrates the Latin alphabet for Koyraboro Senni in Mali, as standardized by "DNAFLA".
| 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) alphabet for Koyraboro Senni, based onUNESCO.BREDA report on standardization of Arabic script in published in 1987 inBamako.[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] |
| 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 |
| 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 |
