Koyra Chiini language - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Koyra Chiini) Songhay language

Koyra Chiini
koyra ciini / jenne ciini كࣷيْرَ ٺِينِ / جٜنّٜ ٺِينِ‎
Native to	Mali
Region	Niger River
Native speakers	(200,000 cited 1999)
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Songhay Southern Koyra Chiini
Dialects	Djenné Chiini Koyra Chiini
Writing system	Latin Arabic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`khq`
Glottolog	`koyr1240`
Location of Songhay languages Northwest Songhay: Korandje Koyra Chiini Tadaksahak Tasawaq Tagdal Eastern Songhay: Tondi Songway Kiini Humburi Senni Koyraboro Senni Zarma language Songhoyboro Ciine Dendi
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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.

Phonology

Vowels
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

All vowels have lengthened counterparts.

Consonants
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	(p)	t	t͡ʃ	k	(ʔ)
Plosive/ Affricate	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	g
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	(ʃ)	(x)	h
Fricative	voiced		(z)	(ʒ)
Approximant			l	j	w
Flap			ɾ

Orthography

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

Koyra Chiini Songhay Latin Alphabet (Mali)
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 Koyra Chiini, based on UNESCO.BREDA report on standardization of Arabic script in published in 1987 in Bamako.

Koyra Chiini Arabic alphabet (Mali)
Arabic (Latin)	ا‎ ‌( - ) [∅]/[ʔ]	ب‎ (B b) [b]	ت‎ (T t) [t]	ٺ‎ (C c) [t͡ʃ]	ث‎ (S s) [s]	ج‎ (J j) [d͡ʒ]
Arabic (Latin)	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)	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)	ط‎ (T t) [t]	ظ‎ (Z z) [z]	ع‎ ( - ) [ʔ]	غ‎ (G g) [ɡ]	ݝ‎ (G g) [ɡ]	ڢ‎ (F f) [f]
Arabic (Latin)	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)	ه‎ (H h) [h]	و‎ (W w) [w]	ؤ‎ ( - ) [ʔ]	ي‎ (Y y) [j]	ئ‎ ( - ) [ʔ]	ࢩ‎ (Ɲ ɲ) [ɲ]

Vowel at the beginning of a word
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

Vowel at the middle or end of a word
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

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.

English Translation	The Tuaregs, when they began — They took a great deal of this land's taxes, they oppressed them (=local people) with their iron rule. They took taxes to the point that they oppressed the people very much. So, they (=people) wrote to them (=distant leaders). They went to Hamdullahi, They told (=asked) Sékou (=a leader) to help them fight the Tuaregs. Sékou, he found one of his (own) pupils, whom they called 'Amadou Sambourou Kolado Doursoudi'. A pupil of his whom he had much confidence in. Sekou asked him (=Amadou), well, what did he (=Amadou) want?
Latin Alphabet	surgu di yo saa di kaa na i šintii hisa ka din gandoo alkaasu, i faraandi gi nda laamu, i din alkaasu di hal i hisa ka faraandi boro di yo saa di i hantum i se i koy hamdallaay, i har seeku se a ma faaba ŋgiye nda, ka yenje surgu di yo. seeku, a gar ŋgu wane taalib foo kaa se i-i har 'aamadu samburu koolado dursudi'. ŋga wane taalib foo kaa a-a hisa ka naaney ga, seeku har a se kaa aywa maa na a-a baa?
Arabic Alphabet	سُرْݝُ‎ دِ يࣷ سَا دِ كَا نَ اِ شِنْتِي هِسَ كَ دِنْ ݝَنْدࣷ اَلْكَاسُ، اِ ڢَرَاندِ ݝِنْدَ لَامُ، اِ دِنْ اَلْكَاسُ دِ حَل اِ هِسَ كَ فَرَاندِ بࣷرࣷ دِ يࣷ سَا دِ اِ هَنْتُمْ اِ سٜ اِ كࣷيْ حَمدَلَّايْ،‌ اِ هَرْ سٜيكُ سٜ اَ مَ فَابَ ݗْݝِيٜ نْدَ، كَ يٜنْجٜ سُرݝُ دِ يࣷ. سٜيكُ، اَ ݝَر ݗْݝُ وَنٜ طَالِب فࣷو كَا سٜ اِئِ هَر «آمَدُ سَمْبُرُ كࣷولَدࣷ دُرسُدِ».ݗْݝَ وَنٜ طَالِب فࣷو كَا اَأَ هِسَ كَ نَانٜي ݝَ، سٜيكُ هَرْ اَ سٜ كَا اَيْوَ مَا نَ اَأَ بَا؟‎

References

Koyra Chiini at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
This map is based on classification from Glottolog and data from Ethnologue.
^ Heath, Jeffrey (1999-01-01). A Grammar of Koyra Chiini: The Songhay of Timbuktu. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110804850.
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
^ Chtatou, M. (1992). Using Arabic script in writing the languages of the peoples of Muslim africa. Institute of African Studies.
^ Kew, Jonathan (2 June 2003). Proposal to encode Arabic-script letters for African languages (PDF).
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

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.

Languages of Mali

Official languages

Working language

French

Indigenous
languages

Niger–Congo

Dogon	Ampari Ana Bankan Tey Ben Tey Bondum Budu Duleri Jamsai Mombo Nanga Penange Tebul Tommo So Western Plains Yanda
Other	Dyula Fula Maninka (N'Ko) Mooré Pulaar Siamou Soninke Supyire Yalunka

Nilo-Saharan

Other

Bangime

Sign languages

v t e Songhay languages
Northern	Tadaksahak Tagdal Korandje Tasawaq
Southern	Dendi Humburi Senni Kaado Koyra Chiini Koyraboro Senni Tondi Kiini Zarma

v t e Arabic alphabets
Europe	Albanian Aljamiado Avar Azerbaijani Belarusian Chechen Circassian Adyghe Kabardian Crimean Tatar Dobrujan Tatar Greek Karachay-Balkar Kazakh Kumyk Lak Ottoman Turkish Serbo-Croatian Tatar (İske imlâ Yaña imlâ)
Asia	Arabic Azerbaijani Balochi Buri Wolio Burushaski Cham Jawi Jawi Kashmiri Kazakh Khowar Kurdish Kyrgyz Malayalam Ottoman Turkish Marwari (Rajasthani) Pamir (Munjani Sarikoli Shughni Wakhi) Parkari Pashto Pegon Persian Rohingya Saraiki Sindhi Shahmukhi Shina Gilgiti Kohistani Sulat Sug Tamil Torwali Turkmen Urdu Uyghur Uzbek Xiao'erjing
Africa	Afrikaans Berber Comorian Fula Ajami Adamawa Bagirmi Nigeria Fuuta Jalon Fuuta Tooro Maasina Kibushi Hausa Ajami Kanembu Maba Serer Ajami Shimaore Songhay Humburi Koyra Chiini Koyraboro Senni Zarma Sorabe Tuareg Air Tamajeq Tawellemmet Swahili Ajami Wadaad's Somali Wolof Yoruba
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