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The Songhay, Songhai or Ayneha languages 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. In particular, they are spoken in the cities of Timbuktu, Djenné, Niamey and Gao. They have been widely used as a lingua franca in that region ever since the era of the ...
Zarma ( Zarma Ciine/Sanni; Ajami: زَرْمَ ݘِينٜ / زَرْمَ سَنِّ) is one of the Songhay languages. It is the leading indigenous language of the southwestern lobe of the West African nation of Niger, where the Niger River flows and the capital city, Niamey, is located. Zarma is the second-most common language in the country ...
- 4.2 million (2019)
- Southwestern Niger
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History of research on the Songhay language. 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. Delafosse is interested in the geopolitics ...
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. Predominantly adherents of Islam, the Songhai are primarily located in Niger and Mali within ...
- 406,000 (2.9%)
- 5,106,423 (21.2%)
- 1,984,114 (5.9%)
48.1 Introduction. Songhay is a language family of the West African Sahel region with more than four million speakers, distributed mainly in western Niger and northeastern Mali along the Niger river, but including outlying pockets scattered as far afield as Algeria, Ghana, and Sudan. In spite of this small population, Songhay’s role in ...
The Songhay language portal. Applications. Dictionaries Keyboards Downloads
Saharan languages are spoken mainly around Lake Chad —which is located at the conjunction of Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger —but also in Libya and Sudan. Subdivided into eastern and western divisions, the Saharan languages include Berti (now extinct), Bideyat, Kanembu, Kanuri, Teda, and Zaghawa. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica ...
