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The Songhay, Songhai or Ayneha languages (, or ) are a group of closely related languages/dialects centred on the middle stretches of the Niger River in the West African countries of Mali, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.
The Songhai people ( autonym: Ayneha) are an ethnolinguistic group in West Africa who speak the various Songhai languages. Their history and lingua franca is linked to the Songhai Empire which dominated the western Sahel in the 15th and 16th century.
Songhai languages, group of closely related languages generally assumed to constitute the primary branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. The Songhai languages are spoken mainly along the Niger River, from Djenné and Timbuktu in Mali eastward as far as Benin, with extensions into adjacent.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Although the study of ancient Arabic manuscripts reveals some writings in the Fulfulde (Fulani) and soŋay (Songhay) languages, the systematic analysis of soŋay did not begin until the end of the nineteenth century, at the beginning of the colonial period.
Southern Songhay is the more populous branch of the Songhay languages, centered on the Niger River, including Timbuktu and the old capital of Gao. It includes Zarma (Djerma), a major language of Niger.
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The Songhai proper (Songhay, Sangwai or Sonrai) are an ethnic group in the northwestern corner of Niger's Tillaberi Region, an area historically known in the country as Songhai. They are a subgroup of the broader Songhai group .
