1999
XVI, 402 pp.
1 map, numerous tables, 3 appendices, morpheme and subject index
Text language: English
This grammar accompanies the author’s book Texts in Koroboro Senni – Songhay of Gao, Mali, see title information at the bottom. Koyraboro (often contracted to Koroboro) Senni is spoken in Gao, Mali. It belongs to the Songhay languages, which have tentatively been related to the Nilo-Saharan language familiy. The expression koyra-boro senn-i literally denotes “the language of the town dwellers” as opposed to nomads (like the Tuareg) and other mobile people (like the cattle-herding Fulani and the Bozo fishing-people). Although koyra-boro senn-i is associated with settled towns, it is a cosmopolitan language which has spread east and west of Gao, to the Fulani living at the Mali-Niger border and to the Bozo.
After a general introduction to the language of Koyraboro Senni, the history of the people, and the geography of the region, the grammar proceeds with an overview of the grammatical system of Koyraboro Senni. This is followed by chapters on phonology, the categorical components and the structure of noun phrases, verbal derivation, and the structure of verb phrases. The syntax-discourse material is organized into a chapter on discourse-functional elements and their syntax, a chapter covering a range of traditional clause-level syntactic phenomena, and a final chapter focusing on anaphora.
Furthermore, three appendices give an account of the riverine Koyraboro Senni dialects east and west of Gao and of the Fulan Kirya dialect of the Gourma, a group of villages to the south of Gao where Songhay-speaking Fulani live.
In addition to this grammar, Jeffrey Heath published two editions of Songhay texts with us:
Texts in Koroboro Senni – Songhay of Gao, Mali, ISBN 978-3-89645-261-0
Texts in Koyra Chiini – Songhay of Timbuktu, Mali, ISBN 978-3-89645-260-3
