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{{Infobox language family
|name=Songhay
|altname=Songhai
|region=middle [[Niger River]] ([[Mali]], [[Niger]], [[Benin]], [[Burkina Faso]], [[Nigeria]]); scattered oases (Niger, Mali, [[Algeria]])
|familycolor=Negro-Egyptian
|fam1=[[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]]
|child1=[[Northern Songhay languages|Northern]]
|child2=[[Southern Songhay languages|Southern]]
|iso2 = son
|iso5 = son
}}

The '''Songhay''' or '''Songhai languages''' (pronounced {{IPA-xx|soŋaj|}}, or {{IPA-xx|soŋoj|}} are found in the cities of [[Timbuktu]] and [[Gao]] and are a group of closely related [[language]]s/[[dialect]]s. They are centered around the middle stretches of the [[Niger River]] in the [[west Afrika]]n states of [[Mali]], [[Niger]], [[Benin]], [[Burkina Faso]], and [[Nigeria]]. They have been widely used as a ''[[lingua franca]]'' in that region ever since the era of the [[Songhay Empire]]. In [[Mali]], the government has officially adopted the dialect of Gao (east of [[Timbuktu]]) as the dialect to be used as a medium of primary education.<ref>Heath 2005</ref>

As regards interintelligibility of Songhay languages, the dialect of [[Koyraboro Senni]] spoken in Gao is unintelligible to speakers of the [[Zarma language|Zarma]] dialect of [[Niger]], according to the Ethnologue.<ref>[http://www.ethnologue.org/show_country.asp?name=NE Ethnologue report for Niger]</ref>

A few precolonial poems and letters composed in Songhay and written in the [[Arabic language|Arabic]] alphabet are extant in Timbuktu.<ref>Hunwick and Boye 2008: ____</ref> However, Songhay is currently written in the [[Latin script]].

==Varieties==
Researchers classify the Songhay languages into two main branches, Southern and Northern.<ref>A map of the varieties is provided by Ethnologue at its Web site. See the list of External Links.</ref> Southern Songhay is centered on the Niger River. [[Zarma language|Zarma]] ([[Djerma]]), the most widely spoken Songhay language with two or three million speakers, is a major language of southwestern [[Niger]] (downriver from and south of Mali) including in the capital city, [[Niamey]]. [[Koyraboro Senni]], with 400,000 speakers, is the language of the town of Gao, the seat of the old Songhay Empire. Koyra Chiini is spoken to its west. The much smaller Northern Songhay is a group of heavily [[Berber languages|Berber]]-influenced dialects spoken in the [[Sahara]]. Since the Berber influence extends beyond the lexicon into the inflectional morphology, the Northern Songhay languages are sometimes viewed as [[mixed language]]s.<ref>SIL Working Papers on Songhay[http://www.sil.org/silewp/abstract.asp?ref=2002-005]</ref>

==Grammar==
Songhay is a [[Tone (linguistics)|tonal]], [[Subject–object–verb|SOV]] language.

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[[wikt:fr:Catégorie:songhaï koyraboro senni| Wictionaire, Dictionary Songhai Koyraboro Senni - French, > 3000 Words]]
*[http://multitree.org/codes/song Songhay languages page in the MultiTree Project at the LINGUIST List].
*[http://www.sil.org/silewp/abstract.asp?ref=2003-003 Relative Clauses in Tadaksahak]
*[http://www.sil.org/silewp/abstract.asp?ref=2002-005 Some verb morphology features in Tadaksahak]
*[http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/SonghaiZarma PanAfrican L10n page on Songhai & Zarma]
*[http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jheath/books.html Publications of linguist Jeffrey Heath on Songhay languages]
*[http://www.djerma.nl/ Language and Culture Djerma]
*Maps showing the Songhay languages of [http://www.ethnologue.org/show_map.asp?name=ML Mali] and [http://www.ethnologue.org/show_map.asp?name=NE Niger]
* [https://sites.google.com/site/lameen/northern-songhay Northern Songhay] - bibliography and brief description of this subfamily

==Bibliography==

Publisher and publication abbreviations:
*CSLI = Center for the Study of Language and Information.
*IFAN = [[Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire|Institut Français d'Afrique Noire (since renamed the Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire)]]
*SELAF = Société d'études linguistiques et anthropologiques de France.
*''SUGIA'' = ''Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika'', journal published by Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Cologne (Köln).
*Köppe = Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.

* Dimmendaal, Gerrit. 2008. Language Ecology and Linguistic Diversity on the African Continent. ''Language and Linguistics Compass'' 2(5): 843''ff.''
* [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/french_historical_studies/v027/27.3white.html Dupuis-Yakouba, Auguste]. 1917. ''Essai pratique de méthode pour l'étude de la langue songoï ou songaï [...]''. Paris: Ernest Leroux.
* Hunwick, John O.; Alida Jay Boye. 2008. ''The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu''. Thames & Hudson.
* [[Robert Nicolaï|Nicolaï, Robert]]. 1981. ''Les dialectes du songhay: contribution à l'étude des changements linguistiques''. Paris: SELAF. 302 pp
* Nicolaï, Robert & Petr Zima. 1997. ''Songhay''. LINCOM-Europa. 52 pp
* Prost, R.P.A. [André]. 1956. ''La langue sonay et ses dialectes''. Dakar: IFAN. Series: Mémoires de l'Institut Français d'Afrique Noire; 47. 627 pp

===On genetic affiliation===
* [[M. Lionel Bender|Bender, M. Lionel]]. 1996. ''The Nilo-Saharan Languages: A Comparative Essay''. München: LINCOM-Europa. 253 pp
* Roger Blench and Colleen Ahland, "The Classification of Gumuz and Koman Languages",[http://25images.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/player/player.php?id=72&id_sequence=433&quality=hd] presented at the ''Language Isolates in Africa'' workshop, Lyons, December 4, 2010
* D. Creissels. 1981. "De la possibilité de rapprochements entre le songhay et les langues Niger–Congo (en particulier Mandé)." In Th. Schadeberg, M. L. Bender, eds., ''Nilo-Saharan : Proceedings Of The First Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Leiden, September 8–10'', pp. 185–199. Foris Publications.
* [[Christopher Ehret|Ehret, Christopher]]. 2001. ''A Historical-Comparative Reconstruction of Nilo-Saharan''. SUGIA - Supplement 12. Köln: Köppe. 663 pp
* [[Joseph Greenberg|Greenberg, Joseph]], 1963. ''The Languages of Africa'' (International Journal of American Linguistics 29.1). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
* Lacroix, Pierre-Francis. 1971. "L'ensemble songhay-jerma: problèmes et thèmes de travail". In ''Acte du 8ème Congrès de la SLAO (Société Linguistique de l’Afrique Occidentale)'', Série H, Fasicule hors série, 87–100. Abidjan: Annales de l’Université d’Abidjan.
* Mukarovsky, H. G. 1966. "Zur Stellung der Mandesprachen". ''Anthropos'', 61:679-88.
* [[Robert Nicolaï|Nicolaï, Robert]]. 1977. "Sur l'appartenance du songhay". ''Annales de la faculté des lettres de Nice'', 28:129-145.
* Nicolaï, Robert. 1984. ''Préliminaires à une étude sur l'origine du songhay: matériaux, problématique et hypothèses'', Berlin: D. Reimer. Series: Marburger Studien zur Afrika- und Asienkunde. Serie A, Afrika; 37. 163 pp
* Nicolaï, Robert. 1990. ''Parentés linguistiques (à propos du songhay)''. Paris: CNRS. 209 pp
* Nicolaï, Robert. 2003. ''La force des choses ou l'épreuve 'nilo-saharienne': questions sur les reconstructions archéologiques et l'évolution des langues''. SUGIA - Supplement 13. Köln: Köppe. 577 pp

{{DEFAULTSORT:Songhay Languages}}
[[Category:Languages of Benin]]
[[Category:Languages of Mali]]
[[Category:Languages of Niger]]
[[Category:Songhay languages|*]]

Songhai languages - Revision history

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