Northern Songhay languages

Language family

Northern Songhay

Geographic
distribution| scattered oases in Niger, Mali, Algeria
Linguistic classification| Nilo-Saharan?

* Songhay
* Northern Songhay

Subdivisions|

* Tadaksahak
* Tagdal (Tagdal, Tabarog)
* Tasawaq
* Korandje

Language codes
Glottolog| `nort2823`

Northern Songhay is the smaller of the two branches of the Songhay languages. It is a group of heavily Berber-influenced dialects spoken in scattered oases of the Sahara.

## Languages

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The nomadic varieties include Tihishit in central Niger around Mazababou (with two dialects, Tagdal and Tabarog) and Tadaksahak (or Dawsahak) spoken around Ménaka northeast of Gao (Heath 1999:xv). The sedentary varieties include Tasawaq in northern Niger (with two dialects, Ingelsi in In-Gall and the extinct Emghedeshie of Agadez) and Korandje far to the north, 150 km east of the Algerian–Moroccan border at Tabelbala.

## Classification

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The main outside influence on all of these except on Korandje is the Tamasheq language cluster. Korandje appears to be influenced more by Northern and Western Berber; in turn, the neighboring Northern Berber language Taznatit shows a few traces of Songhay influence. Since the Berber influence in these languages extends beyond the lexicon into the inflectional morphology, Northern Songhay are sometimes viewed as mixed languages (Alidou & Wolff 2001).

## References

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* Alidou, Husseina & Ekkehardt Wolff. 2001. "On the Non-Linear Ancestry of Tasawaq (Niger), or: How “Mixed” Can a Language Be?" in ed. Derek Nurse, Historical Language Contact in Africa, Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
* Heath, Jeffrey. 1999. A grammar of Koyraboro (Koroboro) Senni: the Songhay of Gao. Köln: Köppe. 402 pp

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Songhay languages

Northern|

* Tadaksahak
* Tagdal
* Korandje
* Tasawaq

Southern|

* Dendi
* Humburi Senni
* Kaado
* Koyra Chiini
* Koyraboro Senni
* Tondi Kiini
* Zarma

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