Kanuri is a language spoken by the Kanuri people in parts of Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon. It is a member of the Nilo-Saharan family of languages. According to Ethnologue, there are about 4 million speakers of Kanuri.
The Kanuri language has two main dialects: Central Kanuri, which is spoken in Niger and Nigeria, and Bornu Kanuri, which is spoken in Chad and Cameroon. Central Kanuri is further divided into two subdialects: Manga Kanuri, spoken in northeastern Nigeria, and Yerwa Kanuri, spoken in central and northwestern Nigeria.
Kanuri is written using a modified Arabic script. It is also sometimes written using a Latin alphabet.
Kanuri is one of the official languages of Niger and Nigeria. It is also one of the languages used in the Kanem-Bornu Empire.