Songhay languages
Encyclopedia
The Songhay, Songhai, or Songai languages ' onMouseout='HidePop("35333")' href="/topics/Timbuktu">Timbuktu
and Gao
; the term Sonrai is also sometimes used) are a group of closely related language
s/dialect
s centered on the middle stretches of the Niger River
in the west Africa
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.
As regards interintelligibility of Songhay languages, the dialect of Koyraboro Senni
spoken in Gao is unintelligible to speakers of the Zarma
dialect of Niger
, according to at least one report.
For linguists, a major point of interest in the Songhay languages has been the difficulty of determining their genetic affiliation; they are commonly taken to be Nilo-Saharan
, following Greenberg
1963, but this classification remains controversial, with little evidence to support it. Dimmendaal (2008) believes that for now it is best considered an independent language family.
The name Songhay is historically neither an ethnic nor a linguistic designation, but a name for the ruling caste of the Songhay Empire. Under the influence of French language
usage, speakers in Mali have increasingly been adopting it as an ethnic self-designation; however, other Songhay-speaking groups identify themselves with other ethnic terms, such as Zarma (Djerma) or Isawaghen.
A few precolonial poems and letters composed in Songhay and written in the Arabic
alphabet are extant in Timbuktu. However, in modern times Songhay is written in the Latin alphabet
.
hesitated between assigning it to Gur
or considering it an isolate, and Delafosse
grouped it with Mande
. At present, Songhay is normally considered to be Nilo-Saharan
, following Joseph Greenberg
's 1963 reclassification of African languages
; Greenberg's argument is based on about 70 claimed cognate
s, including pronoun
s. This proposal has been developed further by, in particular, Lionel Bender
and Christopher Ehret
; Bender sees it as an independent subfamily of Nilo-Saharan, while Ehret, based on 565 claimed cognates, regards it as most closely related to the Maban languages
of western Sudan
and eastern Chad
. Roger Blench
notes that Songhay shares the defining singulative–plurative morphology typical of Nilo-Saharan languages, though it is difficult to show that any of the branches of Nilo-Saharan are actually related. As of 2011, he believes that Songhay is closest to the Saharan languages, and not divergent.
However, a Nilo-Saharan classification is not uncontroversial. Greenberg's argument was subjected to serious criticism by Lacroix, who deemed only about 30 of Greenberg's claimed cognates acceptable, and moreover argued that these held mainly between Zarma
and the neighboring Saharan languages, thus leading one to suspect them of being loanword
s. Certain Songhay-Mande
similarities have long been observed (at least since Westermann), and Mukarovsky (1966), Denis Creissels (1981) and Nicolaï
(1977, 1984) investigated the possibility of a Mande relationship; Creissels made some 50 comparisons, including many body parts and morphological
suffixes (such as the causative
in -endi), while Nicolaï claimed some 450 similar words as well as some conspicuous typological
traits. However, Nicolaï eventually concluded that this approach was not adequate, and in 1990 proposed a distinctly novel hypothesis: that Songhay is a Berber
-based creole language
, restructured under Mande influence. In support of this he proposed 412 similarities, ranging all the way from basic vocabulary (tasa "liver
") to obvious borrowings (anzad "violin
", alkaadi "qadi
".) Others, such as Gerrit Dimmendaal, were not convinced, and Nicolaï (2003) appears to consider the question of Songhay's origins still open, while arguing against Ehret and Bender's proposed etymologies.
Greenberg's morphological similarities with Nilo-Saharan include the personal pronouns ai (cf. Zaghawa
ai), 'I', ni (cf. Kanuri
nyi), 'you (sg.)', yer (eg Kanuri -ye), 'we', wor (cf. Kanuri -wi), 'you (pl.)'; relative and adjective formants -ma (eg Kanuri -ma) and -ko (cf. Maba -ko), a plural suffix -an (?), a hypothetical plural suffix -r (cf. Teso -r) which he takes to appear in the pronouns yer and wor, intransitive/passive -a (cf. Teso -o).
The most striking of the Mande similarities listed by Creissels are the third person pronouns a sg. (pan-Mande a), i pl. (pan-Mande i or e), the demonstratives wo "this" (cf. Manding o, wo) and no "there" (cf. Soninke no, other Mande na), the negative na (found in a couple of Manding dialects) and negative perfect mana (cf. Manding má, máŋ), the subjunctive ma (cf. Manding máa), the copula ti (cf. Bisa ti, Manding de/le), the verbal connective ka (cf. Manding kà), the suffixes -ri (resultative - cf. Mandinka -ri, Bambara -li process nouns), -ncè (ethnonymic, cf. Soninke -nke, Mandinka -nka), -anta (ordinal, cf. Soninke -ndi, Mandinka -njaŋ...), -anta (resultative participle, cf. Soninke -nte), -endi (causative, cf. Soninke, Mandinka -ndi), and the postposition ra "in" (cf. Manding lá, Soso ra...)
Timbuktu
Timbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...
and Gao
Gao
Gao is a town in eastern Mali on the River Niger lying ESE of Timbuktu. Situated on the left bank of the river at the junction with the Tilemsi valley, it is the capital of the Gao Region and had a population of 86,663 in 2009....
; the term Sonrai is also sometimes used) are a group of closely related language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
s/dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s centered on the middle stretches of the Niger River
Niger River
The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...
in the west Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
n states of Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
, Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
, Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
, Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
, and Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
. They have been widely used as a lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
in that region ever since the era of the Songhay Empire. In Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
, the government has officially adopted the dialect of Gao (east of Timbuktu
Timbuktu
Timbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...
) as the dialect to be used as a medium of primary education.
As regards interintelligibility of Songhay languages, the dialect of Koyraboro Senni
Koyraboro Senni
Koyraboro Senni is a variety of Songhai in Mali, spoken by some 400,000 people along Niger River from Gourma-Rharous, east of Timbuktu, through Bourem, Gao, and Ansongo to the Mali–Niger border.The expression “koyra-boro senn-i” literally denotes “the language of the town dwellers” as opposed to...
spoken in Gao is unintelligible to speakers of the Zarma
Zarma language
Zarma is a member of the Songhay languages...
dialect of Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
, according to at least one report.
For linguists, a major point of interest in the Songhay languages has been the difficulty of determining their genetic affiliation; they are commonly taken to be Nilo-Saharan
Nilo-Saharan languages
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers , including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of Nile meet...
, following Greenberg
Joseph Greenberg
Joseph Harold Greenberg was a prominent and controversial American linguist, principally known for his work in two areas, linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.- Early life and career :...
1963, but this classification remains controversial, with little evidence to support it. Dimmendaal (2008) believes that for now it is best considered an independent language family.
The name Songhay is historically neither an ethnic nor a linguistic designation, but a name for the ruling caste of the Songhay Empire. Under the influence of French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
usage, speakers in Mali have increasingly been adopting it as an ethnic self-designation; however, other Songhay-speaking groups identify themselves with other ethnic terms, such as Zarma (Djerma) or Isawaghen.
A few precolonial poems and letters composed in Songhay and written in the Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
alphabet are extant in Timbuktu. However, in modern times Songhay is written in the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
.
Dialect groupings and geographical distribution
Researchers classify the Songhay languages into two main branches, Southern and Northern.- Southern Songhay is centered on the Niger River. The subclassification of this branch is problematic. Some researchers have provisionally classified it into Eastern and Western. But Heath 2005 described shortcomings of this model, and Nicolaï 1981 cautiously refrained from proposing to classify Southern Songhay into two or three divisions. The proposed western division contains Djenné Chiini and–most prominently–Koyra ChiiniKoyra Chiini languageKoyra Chiini , or Western Songhay, is a variety of Songhai in Mali, spoken by about 200,000 people 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...
(KCh) (meaning "town language"), which is the local language of the historically eminent university town of TimbuktuTimbuktuTimbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...
in Mali ('Tombouctou' in French). Koyra Chiini has about 200,000 speakers. The proposed Eastern division contains the remaining Southern languages and dialects. ZarmaZarma languageZarma is a member of the Songhay languages...
(DjermaDjermaThe Zarma people , are a people of westernmost Niger and adjacent areas of Burkina Faso, Benin, Ghana and Nigeria. The Zarma language is one of the Songhai languages, a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family...
), the most widely spoken Songhay language with two million speakers as of 1998, is a major language of southwestern NigerNigerNiger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
(downriver from and south of Mali) including in the capital city, NiameyNiamey-Population:While Niamey's population has grown steadily since independence, the droughts of the early 1970s and 1980s, along with the economic crisis of the early 1980s, have propelled an exodus of rural inhabitants to Niger's largest city...
. (As of 2009, an official Malian government population estimate for the Djerma people residing in Mali is 3,300,000.) Downriver from Zarma in the country of Benin is DendiDendi languageDendi is a Songhay language used as a trade language across northern Benin . It forms a dialect cluster with Zarma and Songhai proper, but is heavily influenced by Bariba....
, heavily influenced by the neighboring Bariba language of the Niger–Congo family. Upriver from Zarma is KaadoKaado languageKaado is a recently described Songhay language of Niger, located upriver from the socially dominant Zarma language. It has traditionally been considered a dialect of Zarma, the name used for all Songhai spoken in Niger....
, spoken northwards up to the border with Mali. In MaliMaliMali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
, Koyraboro SenniKoyraboro SenniKoyraboro Senni is a variety of Songhai in Mali, spoken by some 400,000 people along Niger River from Gourma-Rharous, east of Timbuktu, through Bourem, Gao, and Ansongo to the Mali–Niger border.The expression “koyra-boro senn-i” literally denotes “the language of the town dwellers” as opposed to...
or Koroboro Senni (KS) (meaning "town dweller language"), 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. Humburi SenniHumburi SenniHumburi Senni, or Central Songhay, is a variety of Southern Songhai spoken by about 140,000 people in the Hombori region, straddling the Burkina–Mali border....
, classified by Nicolaï 1981 as "Central Southern Songhay", is spoken in a Songhay language enclave around HomboriHomboriHombori is a town in Mali, lying between Mopti and Gao on the slopes of the Hombori Tondo mesa. It is in the traditional region of Gourma, and the current région administrative de Mopti, Cercle of Douentza....
, south of the Niger River's great bend. Another Eastern Southern dialect was discovered in 1998 in several villages about 120 km west of Hombori: its speakers call it Tondi Songway KiiniTondi Songway KiiniTondi Songway Kiini is a variety of Southern Songhai spoken in several villages in the area of Kikara, Mali, about 120 km west of Hombori. It was discovered in 1998.-References:...
(TSK) (meaning "mountain Songhay language"). Among the Malian Songhay languages, TSK is the only one with lexical tones, and in several ways it seems to be the most conservatively evolved member. - The much smaller Northern Songhay is a group of heavily BerberBerber languagesThe Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...
-influenced dialects spoken in the SaharaSaharaThe Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
. The nomadic varieties include TihishitTihishit languageTihishit is a mixed Northern Songhay language of central Niger. Ethnologue considers Tagdal a "mixed Berber–Songhay language", while other researchers consider it Northern Songhay. About half of its daily vocabulary is Tuareg, and three quarters overall...
in central Niger around Mazababou (with two sub-dialects, Tagdal and Tabarog) and TadaksahakTadaksahak languageThe Dawsahak language, Tadaksahak is a Songhay language spoken by the pastoralist Idaksahak of the Ménaka area of Mali. Its phonology, verb morphology, and vocabulary has been strongly influenced by the neighboring Tuareg languages, Tamasheq and Tamajaq.-Vowels:-Consonants:-References:*Niels and...
spoken around MénakaMénakaMénaka is a rural commune and town in Menaka Cercle, Gao Region, in the far east of Mali. It is the local government seat and largest town in the Cercle, and one of four rural communes...
northeast of Gao. The sedentary varieties include TasawaqTasawaq languageTasawaq language, sometimes also called Ingelshi, is a northern Songhay language spoken by the Issawaghan a community surrounding Ingal in Niger. A closely related variety called Emghedeshie was spoken at Agadez, but is now extinct.Like other Northern Songhay languages, it has been strongly...
in northern Niger (with two dialects, Ingelsi in In-GallIn-GallIn-Gall is a town in the Agadez Region, Tchirozerine Department of northeast Niger, with a year-round population of less than 500...
and the extinct Emghedeshie of AgadezAgadez-Sources:* Aboubacar Adamou. "Agadez et sa région. Contribution à l'étude du Sahel et du Sahara nigériens", Études nigériennes, n°44, , 358 p.* Julien Brachet. Migrations transsahariennes. Vers un désert cosmopolite et morcelé . Paris: Le Croquant, , 324 p. ISBN : 978-2-91496865-2.*. Saudi Aaramco...
) and KorandjeKorandje languageKorandje is by far the most northerly of the Songhay languages. It is spoken around the oasis of Tabelbala by about 3000 people; its name literally means "village's language"...
far to the north, 150 km east of the AlgeriaAlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
–MoroccoMoroccoMorocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
border at TabelbalaTabelbalaTabelbala is an oasis between Béchar and Tindouf in southwestern Algeria, notable for being the only town in Algeria to speak a language neither Arabic nor Berber, Korandje.Tabelbala is divided into four settlements...
. The main outside influence on all of these except on Korandje is the TamasheqTuareg languagesTuareg is a Berber language or family of very closely related languages and dialects spoken by the Tuareg Berbers, in large parts of Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso, with a few speakers, the Kinnin, in Chad.- Description :Other Berber languages and Tamashaq are quite mutually...
language cluster. Korandje appears to be influenced more by Northern BerberNorthern Berber languagesThe Northern Berber languages form a dialect continuum across the Maghreb that constitute a branch of the Berber language subgroup of the Afroasiatic family...
. Since the Berber influence extends beyond the lexicon into the inflectional morphology, the Northern Songhay languages are sometimes viewed as mixed languageMixed languageA mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source...
s (cf. Alidou & Wolff 2001).
Proposals on the genetic affiliation of Songhay
WestermannDiedrich Hermann Westermann
Diedrich Hermann Westermann was a German missionary, Africanist, and linguist. He substantially extended and revised the work of Carl Meinhof, his teacher, although he rejected some of Meinhof's theories only implicitly...
hesitated between assigning it to Gur
Gur languages
The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 70 languages belonging to this group. They are spoken in Burkina Faso, southern Mali, northeastern Côte d'Ivoire, northern Ghana, northern Togo, northwestern Benin, and southwestern Niger.Like most...
or considering it an isolate, and Delafosse
Maurice Delafosse
Maurice Delafosse was a French ethnographer and colonial official who also worked in the field of the languages of Africa...
grouped it with Mande
Mande languages
The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé people and include Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Bissa, Dioula, Kagoro, Bozo, Mende, Susu, Yacouba, Vai, and Ligbi...
. At present, Songhay is normally considered to be Nilo-Saharan
Nilo-Saharan languages
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers , including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of Nile meet...
, following Joseph Greenberg
Joseph Greenberg
Joseph Harold Greenberg was a prominent and controversial American linguist, principally known for his work in two areas, linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.- Early life and career :...
's 1963 reclassification of African languages
African languages
There are over 2100 and by some counts over 3000 languages spoken natively in Africa in several major language families:*Afro-Asiatic spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel...
; Greenberg's argument is based on about 70 claimed cognate
Cognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
s, including pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s. This proposal has been developed further by, in particular, Lionel Bender
Lionel Bender (linguist)
Marvin Lionel Bender was an American author and co-author of several books, publications and essays regarding African languages, particularly from Ethiopia and Sudan. He retired from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He did extensive work in all four language families of Ethiopia: Semitic,...
and Christopher Ehret
Christopher Ehret
Christopher Ehret , a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, is a writer on African history and African historical linguistics, particularly known for his efforts to correlate linguistic taxonomy and reconstruction with the archeological record...
; Bender sees it as an independent subfamily of Nilo-Saharan, while Ehret, based on 565 claimed cognates, regards it as most closely related to the Maban languages
Maban languages
The Maban languages are a small family of languages which have also been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan family. Maban is spoken in Chad, the Central African Republic, Sudan , and South Sudan, and includes the following languages:...
of western Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
and eastern Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
. Roger Blench
Roger Blench
Roger Blench is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and remains based in Cambridge, England...
notes that Songhay shares the defining singulative–plurative morphology typical of Nilo-Saharan languages, though it is difficult to show that any of the branches of Nilo-Saharan are actually related. As of 2011, he believes that Songhay is closest to the Saharan languages, and not divergent.
However, a Nilo-Saharan classification is not uncontroversial. Greenberg's argument was subjected to serious criticism by Lacroix, who deemed only about 30 of Greenberg's claimed cognates acceptable, and moreover argued that these held mainly between Zarma
Zarma language
Zarma is a member of the Songhay languages...
and the neighboring Saharan languages, thus leading one to suspect them of being loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s. Certain Songhay-Mande
Mande languages
The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé people and include Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Bissa, Dioula, Kagoro, Bozo, Mende, Susu, Yacouba, Vai, and Ligbi...
similarities have long been observed (at least since Westermann), and Mukarovsky (1966), Denis Creissels (1981) and Nicolaï
Robert Nicolaï
Robert Nicolaï is a French linguist specializing in the Songhay languages, professor at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis.He is also founder and co-editor of the Journal of Language Contact.-Selected publications:...
(1977, 1984) investigated the possibility of a Mande relationship; Creissels made some 50 comparisons, including many body parts and morphological
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
suffixes (such as the causative
Causative
In linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event....
in -endi), while Nicolaï claimed some 450 similar words as well as some conspicuous typological
Linguistic typology
Linguistic typology is a subfield of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their structural features. Its aim is to describe and explain the common properties and the structural diversity of the world's languages...
traits. However, Nicolaï eventually concluded that this approach was not adequate, and in 1990 proposed a distinctly novel hypothesis: that Songhay is a Berber
Berber languages
The Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...
-based creole language
Creole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
, restructured under Mande influence. In support of this he proposed 412 similarities, ranging all the way from basic vocabulary (tasa "liver
Liver
The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
") to obvious borrowings (anzad "violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
", alkaadi "qadi
Qadi
Qadi is a judge ruling in accordance with Islamic religious law appointed by the ruler of a Muslim country. Because Islam makes no distinction between religious and secular domains, qadis traditionally have jurisdiction over all legal matters involving Muslims...
".) Others, such as Gerrit Dimmendaal, were not convinced, and Nicolaï (2003) appears to consider the question of Songhay's origins still open, while arguing against Ehret and Bender's proposed etymologies.
Greenberg's morphological similarities with Nilo-Saharan include the personal pronouns ai (cf. Zaghawa
Zaghawa language
The Zaghawa language is a Saharan language spoken by the Zaghawa people of eastern central Chad and northwestern Sudan ....
ai), 'I', ni (cf. Kanuri
Kanuri language
Kanuri is a dialect continuum spoken by some four million people, as of 1987, in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, as well as small minorities in southern Libya and by a diaspora in Sudan. It belongs to the Western Saharan subphylum of Nilo-Saharan...
nyi), 'you (sg.)', yer (eg Kanuri -ye), 'we', wor (cf. Kanuri -wi), 'you (pl.)'; relative and adjective formants -ma (eg Kanuri -ma) and -ko (cf. Maba -ko), a plural suffix -an (?), a hypothetical plural suffix -r (cf. Teso -r) which he takes to appear in the pronouns yer and wor, intransitive/passive -a (cf. Teso -o).
The most striking of the Mande similarities listed by Creissels are the third person pronouns a sg. (pan-Mande a), i pl. (pan-Mande i or e), the demonstratives wo "this" (cf. Manding o, wo) and no "there" (cf. Soninke no, other Mande na), the negative na (found in a couple of Manding dialects) and negative perfect mana (cf. Manding má, máŋ), the subjunctive ma (cf. Manding máa), the copula ti (cf. Bisa ti, Manding de/le), the verbal connective ka (cf. Manding kà), the suffixes -ri (resultative - cf. Mandinka -ri, Bambara -li process nouns), -ncè (ethnonymic, cf. Soninke -nke, Mandinka -nka), -anta (ordinal, cf. Soninke -ndi, Mandinka -njaŋ...), -anta (resultative participle, cf. Soninke -nte), -endi (causative, cf. Soninke, Mandinka -ndi), and the postposition ra "in" (cf. Manding lá, Soso ra...)
External links
- Songhay languages page in the MultiTree Project at the LINGUIST List.
- Relative Clauses in Tadaksahak
- Some verb morphology features in Tadaksahak
- PanAfrican L10n page on Songhai & Zarma
- Publications of linguist Jeffrey Heath on Songhay languages
- Language and Culture Djerma
- Maps showing the Songhay languages of Mali and Niger
- Northern Songhay - bibliography and brief description of this subfamily
On genetic affiliation
- 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.
- Ehret, ChristopherChristopher EhretChristopher Ehret , a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, is a writer on African history and African historical linguistics, particularly known for his efforts to correlate linguistic taxonomy and reconstruction with the archeological record...
. 2001. A Historical-Comparative Reconstruction of Nilo-Saharan. SUGIA - Supplement 12. Köln: Köppe. 663 pp - Greenberg, JosephJoseph GreenbergJoseph Harold Greenberg was a prominent and controversial American linguist, principally known for his work in two areas, linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.- Early life and career :...
, 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.
- Nicolaï, RobertRobert NicolaïRobert Nicolaï is a French linguist specializing in the Songhay languages, professor at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis.He is also founder and co-editor of the Journal of Language Contact.-Selected publications:...
. 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