Kanuri language

Kanuri is a Saharan dialect continuum within the Nilo-Saharan language family, used by the Kanuri and Kanembu peoples across Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, with a diaspora community also found in Sudan. It is the language tied to the Kanem and Bornu empires, which held sway over the Lake Chad region for roughly a millennium.

By the start of the 21st century, its two primary dialects—Manga Kanuri and Yerwa Kanuri (sometimes called Beriberi, a term its speakers consider offensive)—had around 9.7 million speakers in Central Africa. The language belongs to the Western Saharan subphylum of Nilo-Saharan. Sentences follow a subject–object–verb word order, and it is typologically unusual for using both postpositions and post-nominal modifiers; for instance, "Bintu's pot" is phrased as *nje Bintu-be*, meaning "pot Bintu-of." Kanuri has three tones: high, low, and falling. It also features a broad system of consonantal lenition; for example, *sa-* "they" plus *-buma* "have eaten" becomes *za-wuna* "they have eaten." Once a common local lingua franca, its use has diminished in recent decades, with most native speakers now learning Hausa or Arabic as a second language.

Geographically, Kanuri is mainly spoken in the lowlands of the Chad Basin, with speakers in Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, and Libya. In Nigeria, the Kanuri region covers Borno and Yobe States, with smaller numbers in Jigawa, Gombe, and Bauchi States, though these are not considered part of the core area. Cities where Kanuri is spoken include Maiduguri, Damaturu, Hadejia, Kano, Kaduna, Gusau, Jos, and Lafia. In central Nigeria, Kanuri speakers are often called Bare-Bari or Beriberi. Central Kanuri, or Yerwa Kanuri, serves as a de facto provincial language in Borno, Yobe, and Gombe States. Manga Kanuri, spoken mainly in Yobe, Jigawa, and Bauchi States, is referred to as Manga, Mangari, or Mangawa, and is seen as distinct from Central Kanuri. The Kanembu language is also spoken in Borno State near the Chad border.

In Niger, the Kanuri region includes Diffa and Zinder Regions in the southeast, along with parts of Agadez Region. Cities with Kanuri speakers include Zinder, Diffa, N'Guigmi, and Bilma. In Zinder, the main dialect is Manga; in Diffa, it is Tumari or Kanembu, with Kanembu spoken by a minority; in Agadez, the main dialect is Bilma. Central Kanuri is a minority dialect there, often called Bare-Bari or Beriberi.

Ethnologue classifies Kanuri into several languages—Central Kanuri, Manga Kanuri, Tumari Kanuri, Bilma Kanuri (or Bilms), and Kanembu—though many linguists, such as Cyffer (1998), consider them dialects of a single language. The first three are spoken by ethnic Kanuri, who view them as dialects. The variety found in 17th-century Qur'anic glosses is called Old Kanembu, and a heavily archaizing descendant, Tarjumo, is still used in religious recitation and commentary.

Phonologically, Kanuri may have prenasalized voiced stops like /mb, nd, ŋɡ/, though their phonemic status is uncertain. The sound /p/ mainly appears as an allophone of /b/ after another voiceless plosive and may vary freely with /f/, but it is represented in the standard orthography. A voiceless fricative [ɸ] occurs as an allophone of /f/ before back vowels /o, u/, and a voiced fricative [β] appears as an allophone of /b/ between vowels. A voiced fricative [ɣ] is an allophone of /ɡ/ between central vowels. A retroflex lateral [ɭ] is heard when /l/ precedes /i/. The sound [ŋ] occurs as an allophone of /n/ before velar stops, and the stops are often deleted or misheard, leaving just the nasal. In vowels, [ɨ] is an allophone of /ə/.

Kanuri has been written in the Ajami Arabic script for at least four hundred years, mainly in religious or court contexts. More recently, a modified Latin script is also used; the Gospel of John, published in 1965, appeared in both Roman and Arabic scripts. A standardized romanized orthography, known as the Standard Kanuri Orthography in Nigeria, was developed by the Kanuri Research Unit and the Kanuri Language Board, based on the Maiduguri dialect. The Orthography Committee, chaired by Abba Sadiq, Waziri of Borno, carried out the work, and the board officially approved it in Maiduguri in 1975. The alphabet uses: a b c d e ǝ f g h i j k l m n ny o p r ɍ s sh t u w y z.

In 1854, Sigismund Koelle published *African Native Literature, or Proverbs, Tales, Fables, and Historical Fragments in the Kanuri or Bornu Language*, containing Kanuri texts with English translations, including proverbs, stories, fables, and historical fragments. In his translation, Koelle mistakenly identified the trickster ground-squirrel, *kə̀nyérì*, as a weasel. Richard Francis Burton later included some of Koelle's proverbs in his *Wit and Wisdom from West Africa*, such as: "Wisdom is not in the eye, but in the head"; "Hope is the pillar of the world"; "As to what is future, even a bird with a long neck cannot see it, but the Lord only"; and "It became..."