Koyra Chiini language

Koyra Chiini
Native to	Mali
Region	Niger River
Native speakers	200,000 (1999)
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Songhay Southern Koyra Chiini
Dialects	Djenné Chiini
Language codes
ISO 639-3
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   Dendi
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Northwest Songhay:

Eastern Songhay:

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 focalization.

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 original z to j.