Songhai

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Song·hai

also Song·hay (sông′hī′, sŏng-gī′)

An ancient empire of western Africa in present-day Mali. It was founded c. 700 by Berbers and reached the height of its power around 1500.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Songhai

(sɒŋˈɡaɪ)

npl -ghai or -ghais

1. (Peoples) a member of a Nilotic people of W Africa, living chiefly in Mali and Niger in the central Niger valley

2. (Languages) the language or group of dialects spoken by this people, now generally regarded as forming a branch of the Nilo-Saharan family

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Noun

Songhai - a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Songhai in Mali and Niger

Nilo-Saharan, Nilo-Saharan language - a family of East African languages spoken by Nilotic peoples from the Sahara south to Kenya and Tanzania