Introduction

Waalii and the Waala People

Waalii is the main language spoken in Wa, the administrative capital of the Upper West Region of Ghana, and its surrounding villages like Guli, Busa, Manwe, Kperisi, Nyagili, Sing, Boli and Logu. Wa is situated approximately within latitudes 9° 45’ - 10° 25’ and longitudes 1° 40’ - 2° 50’ west of the meridian. The 2000 Ghana population census puts the population of the Wala District at 224,066 (GSS, 2005). Majority of the Waala are Moslem and are mostly traders and farmers. Waalii is the trade language in the Upper West Region and is fast becoming the lingua franca for many inter-community and inter-district exchanges (Brindle, 2011). The closest neighbours of the Waala are the Dagaaba, Sissala, Birifor and Chakali. Waalii is considered a dialect of Dagaare, a Gur language belonging to the Oti-Volta branch of the Niger-Congo group of languages. There are about three main orthographies currently in use in the area: that of the Ghana Institute of Languages, Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT), and the Baptist Mid-Missions. In this dictionary, the orthography adopted is that of the Baptist Mid-Missions because among the three, it tends to be the easiest to read by both native and non-native speakers of Waalii. A brief description of the sounds, particularly vowels, is offered below:

Pronunciation Key/Phonetic Guide

 Pronunciation key for open vowels

Pronunciation key for close vowels

There exists a vowel harmony in Waalii. Vowels in a word are of the same set, except in the case of noun-adjective combinations. In this dictionary, a hyphen is used to indicate vowel set.