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Koyra Chiini language

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 focalisation.

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 the original Songhay z to j.[3]

Phonology

All vowels have lengthened counterparts.[3]

Orthography

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

Table below illustrates the Arabic (Ajami) alphabet for Koyra Chiini, based on UNESCO.BREDA report on standardization of Arabic script in published in 1987 in Bamako.[5][6]

Sample text

Below is a sample text, a portion of a monologue recorded in Timbuktu in 1986. It describes the 1840 battle of Toya in which Tuaregs defeated a force from the Fula "Empire" which had its capital in Hamdullahi.[7]

References

  1. ^ Koyra Chiini at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ This map is based on classification from Glottolog and data from Ethnologue.
  3. ^ a b Heath, Jeffrey (1999-01-01). A Grammar of Koyra Chiini: The Songhay of Timbuktu. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110804850.
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b Chtatou, M. (1992). Using Arabic script in writing the languages of the peoples of Muslim africa. Institute of African Studies. [1]
  6. ^ a b Kew, Jonathan (2 June 2003). Proposal to encode Arabic-script letters for African languages (PDF).
  7. ^ Heath, Jeffrey: A grammar of Koyra Chiini: the songhay of Timbuktu. - Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 1998 (Mouton grammar library ; 19) ISBN 3-11-016285-7


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