The Zarma language

Zarma is one of the important Songhay speech varieties (Harisson et al., 1997). It is also referred to as Dyerma, Dyarma, Dyabarma, Zabarma, Adzerma, Djerma, and Zarbarma.

Zarma is one of the southern Songhay dialects spoken in Zarmaganda (arrondissement of Quallam) and the Zarmatarey (arrondissement of Kollo) in Niger, see map below.

Map of areas of occurence of different Sonhay dialects
Map with major southern Songhay dialects
Based on: Harisson et al., 1997, background map: Microsoft-Elsevier, 2001

In total 2,438,400 people speak Zarma of which 2,350,000 live in Niger (estimation Ethnologue, 2006). However, this estimate probably includes other Southern Songhay dialects.
 
Based on 1996 population figures Harrison et al. (1997) calculated that about 2,042,000 people spoke a Songhay dialect in Niger (about 23% of the total population) and about a 804,000 in the neighbouring countries. The number of speakers per dialect per country is given in the table below.

Populations of speakers of southern Songhay dialects
Source: Harisson et al., 1997.
Mali
Niger
Burkina Faso
Benin
Nigeria
Songhay (W, E, C, K)
600,000
(W,E,C)
489,000
(K,E)
122,700
(C,K)
-
-
Songhay - Kurtey
-
44,100
-
-
-
Songhay - Wogo
-
28,800
-
-
-
Zarma
-
1,427,000
600
some
50,000
Dendi
-
53,100
-
30,000
a few

    W,E,C,K = Western, Eastern, Central, Kaado



Last updated: 13 februari 2012