Editing Songhay languages (section)

==Varieties==
{{Pie chart
|label1=[[Zarma language|Zarma]]
|value1=58.4
|color1=#ff5555
|label2=[[Songhoyboro Ciine]]
|value2=18.9
|color2=#ffff00
|label3=[[Koyraboro Senni]]
|value3=9.3
|color3=#d40000
|label4=[[Dendi language|Dendi]]
|value4=5.5
|color4=#ffaaaa
|label5=[[Koyra Chiini language|Koyra Chiini]]
|value5=4.3
|color5=#008000
|label6=[[Tadaksahak]]
|value6=2.2
|color6=#00ff00
|label7=Others|value7=1.4|color7=Brown|caption=Percentage of Songhay speakers by population}}

Researchers classify the Songhay languages into two main branches; Southern and Northern.<ref>A map of the varieties is provided by Ethnologue at its Web site. See the list of External Links.</ref> Southern Songhay is centered on the Niger River. [[Zarma language|Zarma]] ([[Zarma language|Djerma]]), the most widely spoken Songhay language with two or three million speakers, is a major language of southwestern [[Niger]] (downriver from and south of Mali) including in the capital city, [[Niamey]]. [[Koyraboro Senni]], with 400,000 speakers, is the language of the town of Gao, the seat of the old Songhai Empire. Koyra Chiini is spoken to its west. The much smaller Northern Songhay is a group of heavily [[Berber languages|Berber]]-influenced dialects spoken in the [[Sahara]]. Since the Berber influence extends beyond the lexicon into the inflectional morphology, the Northern Songhay languages are sometimes viewed as [[mixed language]]s.<ref>[http://www.sil.org/silewp/abstract.asp?ref=2002-005 SIL Working Papers on Songhay]</ref>