Free Zarma Phrasebook

Learn Survival Zarma

Wikitravel users have collectively created a free Zarma phrasebook with the goal of making it possible for travelers to "get by" while traveling in areas where Zarma is spoken.

Wikitravel phrasebooks are available in many languages and each one varies in depth and detail. Most of the phrasebooks include a pronunciation guide, a general phrase list, information about dates and numbers, a color list, transportation-related phrases, vocabulary for shopping and phrases for eating and drinking. Some are even more in depth, and all are free!

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This Zarma phrasebook is not a language tutorial, comprehensive grammar or dictionary. Its goal is to define just enough of the language so that an English-speaking traveller can "get by" in areas where Zarma is spoken.

Zarma is the local language of southwestern Niger, including areas along the Niger River and in the Nigerien capital Niamey, and with 2 million speakers is the second-most spoken language in Niger after Hausa. It is written using a Latin-based (Romanised) alphabet.

Zarma (also spelled Adzerma, Djerma, Dyabarma, Dyarma, Dyerma, Zabarma, Zarbarma, Zarma, Zarmaci, and Zerma) is a member of the Songhay language grouping and is mutually intelligible with Songhay dialects spoken in Eastern Mali. It is the leading indigenous language of the southwestern lobe of the West African nation of Niger, where the Niger River flows and the capital city, Niamey, is located, and it is the second leading for that entire nation, after Hausa, which is spoken in south central Niger. In earlier decades, it was known as Djerma. With over 2 million speakers, Zarma is far and away the most widely spoken of the Songhay languages.

View the Zarma Phrasebook.