Senufo languages in the context of "Atlantic-Congo"

Volta–Congo is a major branch of the Atlantic–Congo family. It includes all Atlantic–Congo except the families of the erstwhile Atlantic and Kordofanian branches and possibly Senufo.

In the infobox at the right, the languages which appear to be the most divergent (including the dubious Senufo) are placed at the top, whereas those closer to the core (the similar "Benue–Kwa" branches of Kwa, Volta–Niger and Benue–Congo) are near the bottom. If the Kwa or Savannas branches prove to be invalid, the tree will be even more crowded.

The Senari languages form a central dialect cluster of the Senufo languages. They are spoken in northern Ivory Coast, southern Mali and southwest Burkina Faso by more than a million Senufo. Three varieties can be distinguished,

• Cebaara (Tyebaala)
• Senara
• Nyarafolo,

all with several dialects. With 860,000 speakers, Cebaara (Tyembara) is the largest of the four; it is also the central variety, spoken around the traditional Senufo center Korhogo. Senara (190,000 native speakers) of the Laraba Province of Burkina Faso is a geographic outlier; intelligibility testing with Cebaara yields ratings between 42 and 74 per cent (SIL). Nyarafolo is spoken by 50,000 in northeast Ivory Coast around Ferkessédougou; Ethnologue reports a classification as Tagwana-Djimini rather than Senari. Within Senufo as a whole, the Senari languages are thought to be most closely related to the Karaboro languages.