Language code: kr

Technical information about ISO 639 language code kr

The table below provides technical details for the Kanuri language, designated by the kr code from the ISO 639-1 standard.

Code

kr

Name

Official

Kanuri

Native

Kanuri

Family
Saharan
Text direction

Left-to-Right

Language varieties
Central (Yerwa/Beri-beri) KanuriManga KanuriBilma KanuriTumari (Tuwari) Kanuri
Related languages
KanembuTedaDazaZaghawa
Key facts
Belongs to the Saharan branch of the Nilo-Saharan language familyHistorically functioned as the trade lingua franca of the Bornu Empire and trans-Saharan routesWritten in both Latin-based Boko and an older Ajami (Arabic-derived) scriptUses vowel length and three register tones that are rarely marked in writingDisplays predominantly Subject-Object-Verb word order with extensive postpositions.
Sample phrase

Dala, nyín ká?

Character encodings

UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32

Supported in Localizely

Kanuri is part of the Nilo-Saharan language family, specifically within the Saharan branch. It is predominantly spoken by the Kanuri and Kanembu peoples in Nigeria, Niger, and Chad, with a smaller number of speakers in Cameroon. The language is written using both Latin and Arabic scripts. It is estimated to have more than 9.5 million speakers worldwide.

Language presence globally

Speakers

1.5M

800K

*The graph shows a rough estimate of Kanuri speakers in countries where it is an official or minority language.

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