Northern Songhay languages


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

The nomadic varieties include Tihishit in central Niger around Mazababou and Tadaksahak spoken around Ménaka northeast of Gao. The sedentary varieties include Tasawaq in northern Niger and Korandje far to the north, 150 km east of the Algerian–Moroccan border at Tabelbala.

Classification

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.