Koyra Chiini (, 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 , the dialect spoken in
Djenné, is mutually comprehensible, but has noticeable differences - in particular, two extra vowels ( and ) and syntactic differences related to
focalization.