Senari languages

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The Senari languages form a central dialect cluster of the Senufo languages. They are spoken in northern Côte d'Ivoire, southern Mali and southwest Burkina Faso by more than a million Senufo. Four varieties can be distinguished, Cebaara, Nyarafolo, Senara and Syenara, all with several dialects. With 862,000 speakers, Cebaara is the largest of the four; it is also the central variety, spoken around the traditional Senufo center Korhogo. Syenara is spoken north of Cebaara by about 136,500 people. Nyarafolo is spoken by 48,000 in northeast Côte d'Ivoire around Ferkessédougou. Senara (50,000 native speakers) of the Laraba Province of Burkina Faso is the outlier of the four; intelligibility testing with Cebaara yields ratings between 42 and 74 per cent (SIL). Within Senufo as a whole, the Senari language are thought to be most closely related to the Karaboro languages.