# A dictionary and grammatical sketch of Dagaare

Mark Ali Scott Grimm Adams Bodomo

African Language Grammars and Dictionaries 4

Chief Editor: Adams Bodomo Editor: Firmin Ahoua

In this series:


# A dictionary and grammatical sketch of Dagaare

Mark Ali Scott Grimm Adams Bodomo

Mark Ali, Scott Grimm & Adams Bodomo. 2021. *A dictionary and grammatical sketch of Dagaare* (African Language Grammars and Dictionaries 4). Berlin: Language Science Press.

This title can be downloaded at: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/245 © 2021, Mark Ali, Scott Grimm & Adams Bodomo Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN: 978-3-96110-306-5 (Digital) 978-3-98554-002-0 (Hardcover)

ISSN: 2512-4862 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4501694 Source code available from www.github.com/langsci/245 Collaborative reading: paperhive.org/documents/remote?type=langsci&id=245

Cover and concept of design: Ulrike Harbort Typesetting: Scott Grimm Proofreading: Alena Witzlack, Amr El-Zawawy, Andreas Hölzl, Aniefon Daniel, Felix Hoberg, Jean Nitzke, Jeroen van de Weijer, Ludger Paschen, Steven Moran, Tom Bossuyt, Yvonne Treis Fonts: Libertinus, Arimo, DejaVu Sans Mono Typesetting software: XƎLATEX

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## **Contents**




## **Preface**

With this work, we present a more expansive dictionary of the Dagaare language than previously available, paired with a grammatical sketch. We have had to make some choices in putting together this dictionary, and the dictionary should not be seen as representing the whole of the Dagaare language in all its variation. Languages are always changing, and this dictionary presents the vocabulary of a particular variety of Dagaare at a particular time.

Dagaare is spoken by a large number of people (one million speakers according to Simons & Fennig 2017, although this may be conservative, see Section 1) and throughout a large area. Dagaare constitutes a dialect continuum which covers mainly the Upper West Region of Ghana. Varieties of the language can be found in the Savanna Region of Ghana. The language is also found in Burkina Faso where it is known mainly as *Dagara*. The Dagaare Language Committee (Dagaare Language Committee 1982) established orthographical conventions and made broad dialect divisions into Northern, Central and Southern Dagaare. Although these dialects are mutually intelligible to varying degrees, there is a high degree of variation, even from village to village (Bodomo 1997: 2-5).

This dictionary is primarily concerned with the vocabulary of Central Dagaare, spoken around the area of the towns Jirapa and Ullo. This dialect has served as the standard dialect for educational materials in Ghana, church literature and radio broadcasts, and we follow that tradition here. Central Dagaare is also the basis for most linguistic analysis on Dagaare, including the early work of Wilson (1962), Kennedy (1966) and Hall (1977). Southern Dagaare (also known as Waale) is centered around the towns of Wa and Kaleo and widely used as a trade language throughout the region (Bodomo 1997). While the Central and Southern dialects overlap to a substantial degree, there are certainly many differences, some of which are noted in this dictionary. Two other relevant dialects lying to the West are Southern Birifor, which is mutually intelligible with Southern Dagaare, and Safaliba (population 4000) near Bole in the Northern Region, which, according to Simons & Fennig (2017), has a large lexical similarity to Southern Dagaare. It is our hope that the publication of this dictionary will serve as a first step to documenting the diversity of the Dagaare language, and will bring to light lexical and grammatical variation across the varieties of Dagaare.

#### Preface

To illustrate, we list several concepts which are expressed by different lexical items in different dialect zones in Table 1.


Table 1: Lexical variation across four dialect zones

Further variation is found in the other direction: One lexical item may have different meanings in different dialects. We illustrate with the term *nabaale* which has two different meanings in two different Southern dialects, Waale and Manlaale:

• *nabaale*: 'grandfather' (Walee), 'paternal uncle (older than one's father)' (Manlaale)

We also note that some entries retain earlier orthographical forms, even though in modern pronunciation a reduced form is current. This is particularly present for weak vowels following *ŋ*, as in *bɛŋe* 'to sift', which is pronounced [bɛŋ].

We would like to acknowledge the prior lexicographic work on Dagaare, most notably Durand (1953) and Bodomo (2004a), both being works which we have consulted and have attempted to build upon.

### **The structure of the entries**

The entries in the dictionary are structured as follows. Each entry is followed by (i) its phonetic transcription, including tones, (ii) its part of speech, (iii) its definition in English, (iv) one or more examples in Dagaare illustrating the use

#### Preface

of the word and the corresponding translation(s), and (iv) any further inflectional or derivational forms.

Due to the nature of this work, the grammatical information contained in the entries is limited. In addition to the sketch grammar provided here, several grammars on Dagaare exist which describe the grammatical features of the language and other selected topics. We encourage readers to consult Bodomo (1997), Bodomo (2000), Bodomo (2004a,b), and Kropp Dakubu (2005) for further information on the grammar of Dagaare.

**Nouns** For nouns, the following number forms are given:


**Adjectives** Adjectives inflect for number in Dagaare, thus plural and second plural forms are listed when present.

**Pronouns** Pronouns list plural forms, although due to their common occurrence, the plural forms of pronouns are also given their own main entry.

**Verbs** The verbal entries specify the following six forms at the end of the entry in this order:


These forms do not exhaust the derived verbal forms available in Dagaare, such as various nominalizations or derived adjectives, which we plan to incorporate in a future edition of this dictionary.

**Other parts of speech** Adverbs, conjunctions, and interjections are indeclinable in Dagaare, so only the single form is listed along with its gloss.

#### References

## **References**

Bodomo, Adams. 1997. *The structure of Dagaare*. Stanford: CSLI.


Durand, Rev. J.B. 1953. *Dagaare-English dictionary*. Catholic Mission Duplicator.

Hall, Edward. 1977. Dagaare. In M. K. Dakubu (ed.), *West African language data sheets*, vol. 1. The West African Language Society.

Kennedy, Jack. 1966. *Collected field reports on the phonology of Dagaari* (Collected Language Notes 6). University of Ghana, Accra: Institute of African Studies.

Kropp Dakubu, Mary E. 2005. *Collected language notes on Dagaare grammar* (Collected Language Notes, Vol. 26). Legon, Ghana: Institute of Language Studies.

Simons, Gary F. & Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2017. *Ethnologue: Languages of the world*. 20th edn. Online version:

http://www.ethnologue.com. Dallas, Texas: SIL International.

Wilson, William A. 1962. *The vowel system of Dagaari and Lobiri*. University of Ghana, Accra: Institute of African Studies.

## **Acknowledgments**

Mark Ali and Scott Grimm gratefully acknowledge the assistance, encouragement and support of Adams Bodomo, without whom this dictionary would have never come to pass. Adams Bodomo put us in contact initially in 2008, and has supported our continued collaborative efforts in various ways since, always providing very valuable input.

Mark Ali would like to acknowledge Damasus Sundeme, Bede Tankur and Robert Daah for contributing words and clarifications.

Scott Grimm would like to thank two outstanding students who aided with the preparation of the manuscript. First, Kathryn Fulton lent us her editorial skills in correcting the entire dictionary, leading to far greater consistency. Second, Rebbeca Everson aided in the conversion from the dictionary's original format, a Toolbox file, into LATEX. Further details on this process can be found in Everson & Grimm (2017).

All the authors would like to acknowledge our appreciation to Martin Haspelmath, who provided detailed comments on the grammatical sketch, and to Sebastian Nordhoff, for assisting us with the publication of the manuscript. Thanks also to Firmin Ahoua for various helpful comments.

This work developed out of work carried out during the second author's field trip to Ghana in 2011, for which funding from NSF Grant # 1023289 is gratefully acknowledged.

## **References**

Everson, Rebecca & Scott Grimm. 2017. From Toolbox database to LATEX dictionary. Poster presented at 5th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC), March 2017, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI.

## **Authors' contributions**

Mark Ali and Scott Grimm contributed the dictionary. Mark Ali is the primary author of the content of the dictionary, much of which was developed collaboratively with Scott Grimm. Scott Grimm was responsible for the organizing the entries, editing, typesetting, proofreading, and writing the front matter. Adams Bodomo contributed the grammatical sketch, based on Bodomo (2000). Scott Grimm edited and typeset the grammatical sketch for this volume.

## **References**

Bodomo, Adams. 2000. *Dagaare* (Languages of the World Materials No. 165). München, Germany: Lincom Europa.

## **Dictionary orthography and corresponding IPA symbols**


NB: This differs from the orthography of Dagaare Language Committee (1982) in representing *ŋ* as a single character rather than *ng*. The grammatical sketch retains the *ng* orthography.

## **List of abbreviations**


## **Grammatical sketch of Dagaare**

**by Adams Bodomo**

#### 1 The Dagaare language and Dagaare studies

One of the best resources for the development of literacy and literary practices in a language is a comprehensive dictionary of the language informed by sound linguistic analysis. Dagaare has quite a lot of resources including grammars (Bodomo 1997b; 2000; Kropp Dakubu 2005), many word lists and specialized dictionaries (Durand 1953; Bodomo 2004a), readers (Zakpaa 1978) and numerous linguistic analyses in the form of theses, monographs and journal articles. However, there does not exist a comprehensive dictionary that is general and substantial enough for everyday use by native speakers and learners of the language.

The present dictionary therefore fills a major void in Dagaare studies. In this foreword, I provide some background information about the Dagaare language and Dagaare studies. I also present a sketch of the grammar of the language, based largely on my grammar sketch in Bodomo (2000). <sup>1</sup> All this is intended to assist the user to understand some basic aspects of the grammar towards understanding the various entries, including grammatical categories, and nominal and verbal categories and groupings.

## **1 The Dagaare language and Dagaare studies**

In terms of demographic and socio-political importance, Dagaare (also written variously as *Dagaari*, *Dagara*, and *Birifor*) is one the prominent languages of West Africa, spoken in northwestern Ghana and adjacent areas of Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. It is broken down into various variants across these three countries: in Ghana it is mainly called *Dagaare*, in Burkina Faso, it is mainly called *Dagara* and in Côte d'Ivoire it is mainly called *Birifor*. It is spoken by between two and three million people in all these countries, with far more speakers in Ghana than in the other two countries. In terms of genetic relationship, it belongs to the Mabia (also known as Gur, although this term is dispreferred by many Dagaare-speaking linguists) group of languages of the Niger-Congo language family, along with other languages such as Dagbane, Waale, Gurenne, Mampruli, Kusaal, Buli, Kasem, Sisaali and Moore.

Dagaare is being vigorously studied and used both as a language of education at lower levels of the educational ladder and as a school subject at higher levels of the ladder. Indeed, in universities and colleges of higher education in Ghana and Burkina Faso, Dagaare programs have some of the highest enrollments. We can indeed talk of an emerging field of Dagaare Studies in the sense that, not only is there vibrancy at all these levels of education in teaching programs, Dagaare

<sup>1</sup> I thank Lincom Europe for permission to use parts of that work in this grammar sketch.

is also the subject of vigorous research by linguists and other scholars in West Africa (Ghana, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire) and other parts of the world. Dagaare books and articles have appeared in some of the best linguistics journals (such as, *Natural Language and Linguistic Theory*, *Lingua*, and *Studia Linguistica*) and some of the most prominent book publishing houses such as Stanford University CSLI Press, and Oxford University Press. There is even an existing (but currently dormant) *Journal of Dagaare Studies*. What all this indicates is that a comprehensive user-friendly dictionary is long overdue in this area of study. A Daagare-English dictionary is therefore a most welcome resource. In the next section, I will introduce some of the major features of the structure of Dagaare towards understanding the dictionary entries in the book.

## **2 Phonology**

### **2.1 Orthography and sound system of Dagaare**

A note on the orthography of the language is necessary for an understanding of the written forms of the entries. The standard orthography, developed by the Catholic Church in Ghana and now widely used in educational institutions, is based on the Central dialect but there are several alternative orthographies (e.g. Nakuma 1999; 2002). All of these are basically phonemic. Dagaare is a two-tone language, but tone is not marked in the standard orthography. Table 2 shows the standard Dagaare alphabet, which has 31 graphemes, comprising 24 single-letter graphemes (representing 17 consonants and 7 vowels), 6 digraphs and 1 trigraph (Table 2).

### **2.2 Consonants**

Dagaare has twenty-five consonants and two glides (semi-consonants) in underlying representation. This is shown in Table 3.

The glottal implosive counterparts of /h/, /l/ and /m/ are attested only in the Northern dialect of the language (spoken mostly in Burkina Faso and called Dagara); the Southern and Central dialects do not have them. Two additional consonants [r] and [ɣ] are found at surface level, occurring as allophones to /d/ and /g/ at initial positions and intervocalically, respectively. Consider the following words:

(1) [dì] 'to eat', [dìré] 'eating', [górí] 'dowry', [pɔ́ɣɔ́] 'woman'

In these examples [d] and [g] occupy the word initial position. The sounds [r] and [ɣ], on the other hand, occur intervocalically. Voiceless plosives are usually


#### Table 2: Standard Dagaare Alphabet

aspirated when they occur in word initial position. The phonetic transcriptions: [tʰàllɪ] 'to walk fast' and [pʰàllɪ ̀ ] 'to weave' illustrate aspiration. As can be seen ̀ on the chart, some of the consonant phonemes such as /kp/, /gb/, and /ŋm/ have a dual place of articulation. What the term "labial-velar" means is that the sound involved is produced simultaneously with the velum and the lips as active or-


Table 3: Consonants

gans of sound production. These sounds are known as double articulations or co-articulations. Examples are /ŋmámá/ 'calabashes' and /gbɛrɪ́ / 'cripple'. ́

### **2.3 Vowels**

Nine oral vowel phonemes may be established for Dagaare and these are shown in Figure 1.


Figure 1: Vowels

The + and – signs in the chart show that the relevant distinctive features, High, Low, Round and atr (Advanced Tongue Root), are present or absent, respectively. These are then the basic vowel phonemes of Dagaare, but processes such as vowel lengthening, nasality, harmony and sequencing make the system a bit more complex. Each of the above nine short vowels has a long counterpart, and the opposition of short and long vowels of the same quality brings about differences in meaning, as is manifest in the following minimal pairs:

(2) /tɔ̌r/ '-self' : /tɔ̀ɔ́r/ 'far' /kǔr/ 'tortoise' : /kùúr/ 'hoe' /bà/ 'fix to the ground' : /bàà/ 'grow up'

On the basis of this evidence, then, we may say that vowel length is phonemic in Dagaare. In addition, each of the nine oral vowels may be nasalized.

An interesting type of co-occurrence restriction in Dagaare involves the distinctive feature [±atr]. In a Dàgáàrè phonological word, only vowels of the same atr value can occur. The following will briefly illustrate the point:

(3) /dìré/ 'eating' : +atr vowels /dɪrɛ́ / 'taking' : - ́ atr vowels /púò/ 'farmland' : +atr vowels /pʊ́ɔ́/ 'stomach' : -atr vowels

This co-occurrence restriction involving both contiguous and non-contiguous vowels is called vowel harmony.

### **2.4 Tone**

Dagaare is a register tone language with two levels of tone, high and low, and a downstepped high unit. Downstep is said to occur when in a given phonological unit the second of two high tones (with relatively low tone in between them) happens not to be as high as the first high tone (Kennedy 1966). However, downstep can also occur with two successive high tones. The data in (4) are words showing high and low tonal contrasts:


### **2.5 Phonological processes**

Various types of phonological processes occur in the language. I shall outline three types here. These are vowel harmony, vowel assimilation, and vowel elision.

### **2.5.1 Vowel harmony**

One of the most pervasive phonological processes is vowel harmony, as has been described above. Besides vowel co-occurrence restriction based on [±atr], as in (3), there is also a minor vowel co-occurrence restriction based on roundness, [±round]. This happens mainly with the imperfective suffix /rɔ/ with mid vowels which must be in total harmony with root vowels in Central Dagaare. The following examples in (5) illustrate this phonological process.


#### **2.5.2 Vowel assimilation**

While vowel harmony may involve both contiguous and non-contiguous vowels, vowel assimilation occurs only with contiguous vowels, that is, vowels without any intervening consonants, though they may belong to different syllables or words. I illustrate this phonological process with the following quantifier NPs, involving a noun and a numeral, as shown in (6).

	- b. bóóré goat-pl átà three → bóó-rá átà 'three goats'
	- c. kyúú-rì month-pl ànáárè four → kyúú-rà ànáárè 'four months'

#### **2.5.3 Final vowel elision/apocope**

Final vowel elision is a pervasive phonological process in Dagaare and other Gur languages (see Kennedy 1966,Anttila & Bodomo 1996, Bodomo 1997b for Dagaare; Rialland 1985 for Moba; Hyman 1993 for Dagbani; and Cahill 1999 for Konni). In Dagaare, there is the tendency for the final vowel that is often not a distinctive functional morpheme to be dropped in various speech situations, such as fast speech, recitations and songs. In (7a), the final high and mid vowels are elided, thus giving us reduced forms of the words in which they are found. The examples show broad phonemic transcriptions, not orthography.


Sometimes, even vowels representing a distinctive functional morpheme, such as the singular suffix marker in the word for 'woman' in (7a) can be elided, with the understanding that the root word also stands for the singular form of the noun. The final vowel of the item *pɔ́g-bɔ́* cannot be elided probably because the consonant segment alone cannot indicate the plural form of the word, and such syllable structure in coda position is forbidden in Dagaare.

## **3 Morphology**

This section comprises two main subsections on nominal and verbal morphology, followed by a discussion of other words classes and morphological processes. Under nominal morphology, I shall outline the main systems in the Dagaare noun phrase, including number, definiteness/referentiality, and possession. I shall also

outline other categories in the noun phrase, including pronouns, adjectives, numerals. Under verbal morphology, I describe parts of the verb, including its root, various inflectional and derivational affixes, as well as adverbs and pluractionality. I then describe in a final section ideophones and additional morphological processes, namely reduplication and compounding.

### **3.1 Nominal morphology**

#### **3.1.1 The noun**

**3.1.1.1 Number/class** Dagaare has an intricate system of number suffixes that divides its nouns into about ten classes. Each of the nouns in Table 4 represents a class of nouns.


Table 4: Classes of nouns based on singular-plural pairings

The basic class distinction in Dagaare then for number. One may be able to predict the singular and plural suffixes of a noun depending on its class. Unlike in Bantu languages, where linguists have developed a labeled system of classes, there is no recognized system of labeled classes in the Mabia languages. In Bodomo (1997b), an attempt is made to group Dagaare nouns into a labeled system of classes. Table 4 is based on that classification. There is the need for a large-scale investigation of Mabia languages from a comparative perspective, with a view to establishing a system of labeled classes for the whole sub-group that covers quite a substantial landmass of the West Africa sub-continent (see also Miehe & Winkelmann 2007).

**3.1.1.2 Definiteness/Referentiality** Definiteness of nouns is expressed in Dagaare by placing the article *à* before the noun. Hence:

	- b. à 'the pɔ́gɔ́ woman' / / à 'the pɔ́gɔ́bɔ́ women'
	- c. à 'the sàkúúrì school' / / à 'the sàkúè schools'

This is illustrated in (9).

	- b. à def bíírí child.pl gàá go.pfv lá foc sàkúúrì school zénɛ̀ today 'The children have gone to school today.'

Indefiniteness is marked by a bare noun, as shown in (10), or by placing the article *kàngá* after the bare noun, as in (11):


When we make reference to a specific item, the prenominal definite article *à*, as seen above, and a postnominal demonstrative article *ná* are employed alongside the bare noun. This use of the article to signal specificity is illustrated in (12).

(12) à def bíé child ná that dà pst wá come lá foc kyɛ́ here 'That child came here.'

**3.1.1.3 Case** Lexical nouns are not overtly marked for case in Dagaare. Even with pronouns, it is only in the first person singular that there is a morphological distinction between the nominative and accusative case forms, as shown in the list of pronouns in §3.1.2.

**3.1.1.4 Possession** The associative relation is not overtly marked in Dagaare by any affixes. Instead, this is signaled by word order. In an associative construction (genitive/possessive) involving a pronoun, the pronoun occurs before the head noun. Where there are two nouns or noun phrases, the first one is the genitive (modifier) and the second the head. This is illustrated in (13).

	- Naana book 'Naana's book'
	- c. à def dɔ̀ɔ̀-fáá man-bad ná that gàn-vìlàà book-good 'That bad man's good book.'

In (13a), the pronoun occurs before the head noun; in (13b) the first noun, *Nààná*, is the genitive and the second is the head noun. In (13c) we have two noun phrases within the constellation of the genitive construction. The first phrase serves as the genitive to the second phrase that is the head of the construction.

### **3.1.2 Pronouns**

Under pronouns, I will briefly discuss personal, demonstrative, reflexive, reciprocal, relative, possessive, interrogative, and indefinite pronouns.

**3.1.2.1 Personal pronouns** In the Dagaare pronominal system, personal pronouns do not indicate gender differences, as does English with he and she, and there is hardly any case marking. Only in the first person singular pronominal paradigm is there a distinction between nominative and accusative forms, *ǹ* and *mà*, respectively. One salient feature in the Dagaare system of pronouns is that, for subject pronouns, we have a distinction between weak and strong forms, quite like the French, *je* 'I' - *moi* 'me', *tu* 'you' - *toi* 'you' paradigm. Another important feature in this system is the distinction between human and non-human


Table 5: Dagaare personal pronouns

forms for third person plural pronouns. Table 5 shows a list of Dagaare personal pronouns.

**3.1.2.2 Demonstrative pronouns** The pronouns in (14) are a few of the demonstrative pronouns in Dagaare. As with personal pronouns, there is a distinction between human and non-human forms for the third person plural pronouns.


**3.1.2.3 Reflexives** The word *mèngɛ́* or *mèngɛ́tɔ̌r* (singular) and *mènné* or *mènné tɔ̌r* (plural), used after any of the personal pronouns above, expresses reflexivity in Dagaare. This is tabulated in Table 6.

The constructions in (15) illustrate how they are used.

	- b. màá 1sg.str mèngɛ́ self tɔ̌r self lá foc tòng work à def tómɔ́ work 'It is I that did the work all by myself.'


Table 6: Reflexives pronouns

**3.1.2.4 Reciprocal pronouns** Reciprocal pronouns in Dagaare include *tɔ̌*, *tɔ́sòbá*, *táá* and *táábá*. However, the most commonly used is *táá*. Example (16) illustrates its syntactic position.

(16) tè 1pl nɔ̀nɔ́ love lá foc táá recp.pron 'We love each other / one another.'

**3.1.2.5 Relative pronoun** Dagaare does not distinguish between the human and non-human form of relative pronouns as the English 'who' (for humans) and 'which' (for non-humans). For both of these the relative pronoun is *nàng*. The following are example constructions illustrating the use of the relative pronoun:

	- b. à def gánè book ná comp náng rel.pron lè fall 'the book that fell'

**3.1.2.6 Possessive pronouns** The words *tóɔ́r* and *dèń* (sg) *dèmé* (pl), meaning 'own', combined with any of the personal subject pronouns, express possession in Dagaare. This is illustrated below:


**3.1.2.7 Interrogative pronouns** The following is a list of interrogative pronouns in the language. Some appear in example sentences to show how they would be used in the language.


	- b. bóó which lá foc zèng sit à def bè there ? 'Which of you/ which of them is sitting there?'
	- c. bábóbò which lá foc zèng sit à def bè there ? 'Which of them are sitting there?'
	- d. àńg who lá foc àrè stand à def bè there ? 'Who is standing there?'

e. àńg who mìné pl lá foc àrè stand à def bè there ? 'Who are standing there?'

**3.1.2.8 Indefinite pronouns** Strictly speaking, Dagaare does not seem to have indefinite pronouns as, for instance, the French *quelqu'un*, 'someone'. The situation is more like the English *somebody*, *someone*, etc., where a noun like 'body' combines with the item *kàngá*:

	- b. kàngá another sóbɔ́ person bé be lá foc kyɛ̌ here 'Someone is here.'

#### **3.1.3 Honorific system**

Dagaare does not have a system of high and low 2nd person pronouns to deploy respectful address, as we find in some European languages like French and German, or as we find in Cantonese and some South-East Asian languages by the choice of classifiers. However, like Cantonese (Killingley 1993), one way of deploying honour is to bestow a real or fictitious relationship on people, rather than addressing them by their bare names. So words like *ǹ bǎ* 'my father, friend', *ǹ béɛ́rè* 'my big brother' may be used to address people, even if they are complete strangers, as a sign of respect or honour for them.

#### **3.1.4 Numerals**

The Dagaare numeral system is a mixed system of decimals and multiples of twenty, so that 15 is 'ten and five', while 40 is 'two twenties'. Both cardinal and ordinal numerals exist in the language. Table 7 shows a list of cardinal numerals from 1 to 10.

The table shows numeral roots and, depending on whether the noun is human or non-human, a prefix or element precedes the root. Cardinal numerals follow the above regulation, shown in (23a), as do ordinal numerals, which add the element *sòbɔ́* following the numeral, as shown below in (23b). For multiplicative numerals, the element *bo-* is added to the root of the numeral (from 1 to 9), as


Table 7: Numerals

shown in (23c), although from 10 onwards, people tend to prefer the expressions such as *gbɛ́ɛ́ píé*, 'ten times', etc., to using the element *bo-*.


#### **3.1.5 Adjectives**

An adjective may be used as a verbal predicate (24a), or a predicative with a copular verb (24b), or in combination with a root of the noun it qualifies to form a compound (24c). Not all adjectives can be used in these three different ways.

(24) a. à def pɔ́g-ɔ́ woman-sg vèɛ̀lɛ́ be.beautiful lá foc 'The woman is beautiful.'


The comparative is expressed by the use of verbs of surpassing such as *gàngè* and *zùò*, as in (25).

	- b. à def pɔ́g-ɔ́ woman-sg nyɛ́ dem é be lá foc vèlàá beautiful zùò surpass à def pɔ̀g-ɔ̀ woman-sg ná dem 'This woman is more beautiful than that woman.'

The superlative is expressed in Dagaare using the adjective, the surpass verb and the intensifier *à zàá* or *ba zàá*, as in (26).

	- b. à def dɔ́ɔ́ man nyɛ́ dem lá foc è be bɛróng ́ fat gàngè surpass bà 3pl.human zàá intens 'This man is the fattest (of all).'

### **3.2 Verbal morphology**

In this section we shall outline the verbal morphology of Dagaare, including the main verb, inflectional and derivational affixes, adverbs and pluractionality.

### **3.2.1 The verb**

**3.2.1.1 Main verb** Dagaare does not have what may be called an "infinitive verb", as is commonly found in many Indo-European languages; so it is often better to talk of a dictionary entry or citation form. In a sentence like: *Ǹ yèlí ká "kúlɪ́" Ǹ bá yèlì ká "à zèngè*" 'I say "go home", I did not say "sit down"', the citation forms are *à kúlí* or *kúlí* and *à zèngè* or *zèng*. These full forms may also

have incomplete forms: *kúlí* ∼ *kúl*, *zèngè* ∼ *zèng*. It is these full forms that would be featured as the key entry in any Dagaare dictionary. In its conjugated form the main verb has three other forms marking perfective and imperfective aspect. The following forms illustrate:


There are basically two aspectual forms in Dagaare: the perfective (completive) and the imperfective (progressive). These are often expressed by suffixes. They respond to phonological rules such as vowel harmony and assimilation, taking on the features of the root of the verb. The perfective aspect, in turn, has two subtypes. The usual type is normally not morphologically realized. The second type normally occurs when there is no object element immediately after the verb, hence the term 'perfective intransitive' aspectual form. These aspectual suffixes function in conjunction with the preverbal particles to express temporal, aspectual, and polarity features. Basically then, the morphology of the main verb is one of a root followed by a suffix. The basic system of the Mabia verb is often labeled as aspect–the perfective and imperfective aspect. It may also be called, according to Bendor-Samuel (1971), event and process, punctiliar and linear, etc. In this basic system, the speaker sees the action as either completed or not yet completed. This is irrespective of whether the action is viewed as being in the past or not, as is shown in the following sentences:

	- b. ò 3sg dà pst kúl-ó go.home-impf lá foc 'S/he was going home.'
	- c. ò 3sg kúl-ó go.home-impf lá foc 'S/he is going home.'

In languages like Dagbane and Mampruli there is, in addition to this basic inflectional system, another inflectional positive imperative suffix *-ma* which is added to the verb. This is illustrated below in Dagbane and Mampruli:

(29) ìsì-má get.up-impv 'Get up!'

Further still, there are other verbal suffixes, *-ya* in Dagbane and Mampruli and *-ng* in Dagaare, which serve to affirm or emphasize the verbal action, often known as a *focus* or *factitive* marker. This is also shown in (30):

```
(30) a. Dagbane/Mampruli
    ò
    3sg
        ìsì-yà
        get.up-foc
    'S/he has gotten up.'
b. Dagbane/Mampruli
    ò
    3sg
        kyàm-yá
        walk-foc
    'S/he has gone.'
 c. Dagaare
    ò
    3sg
        kyɛng-ɛ ́ ɛ́ -ńg ́
        walk-pfvintr.-foc
    'S/he has walked.'
```
In Dagaare and, possibly, in Mampruli and Dagbane, these focus/factitive/affirmative affixes are in complementary distribution with the so-called postverbal *lá*.

**3.2.1.2 Verb root** The most basic part of the verb is, of course, the root or stem. Most verb roots in Dagaare are monosyllabic. An understanding of the relationship between verb roots and their affixes is important for categorizing Dagaare verbs into classes. The following are examples of Dagaare verb roots:


In addition to these, there is a dictionary form, the equivalent of infinitive verbs in other languages. This may also be called the citation form. So, in citing any of the above verbs, designated by their roots, we would say:

(32) à nyú to drink à zó to run à vɔ̀gè to turn up, open

These forms, excluding the *à*, are the ones that would appear in dictionary entries.

**3.2.1.3 Inflectional affixes** As has been discussed, the main inflectional affixes of Dagaare express aspect. There are three forms, one imperfective affix and two perfective affixes. In addition to this is the affixal counterpart of the factitive or affirmative particle. I shall use two of the verb roots above to illustrate the various inflectional affixes:


Imperative forms are homophonous with the perfective transitive forms.

**3.2.1.4 Derivational affixes and changes** Derivational affixes, unlike their inflectional counterparts, are not easily separable from the verb root: their forms are not easily discernible, so we will discuss them under their functions in the next section.

**3.2.1.5 Functional systems of the verb** An interesting aspect of Dagaare and other Mabia verbal systems is that verbs can be classified into pairs or even several classes of oppositions depending on derivational processes such as causativity, transitivity, reversivity and many others. Table 8 is an attempt to illustrate this with a number of Dagaare verbs.

The pairs of oppositions from 1 to 7 seem to illustrate causativity oppositions, with the members to the left being the causatives. While illustrating causativity the pairs from 1 to 4 also illustrate transitivity, with the pairs to the left being the transitive verbs while those to the right are the intransitives.


Table 8: Oppositions in verbal forms

Pairs from 8 to 11 illustrate the reversivity oppositions, while pair 12 may illustrate what may be called the releasive opposition. Pair 14 seems to illustrate the repetitive or iterative opposition between the two members. In addition to these oppositions one may also find other oppositions. One good example is the polarity opposition between the following Mampruli verbs: *mi* 'to know'; *zi* 'to not know'. This is illustrated in the following sentences where *zi* is an inherent negative verb:

	- b. ǹ 1sg pá neg mí know 'I don't know.'
	- c. ǹ 1sg zì neg+know 'I don't know.'
	- d. \*ǹ 1sg pá neg zí neg+know 'I don't know.'

Now, a glance at the table of oppositions shows that derivational affixation is not a very developed phenomenon in Dagaare and other Mabia languages, certainly not as developed as the derivational systems of Bantu. In Table 8, there is only one consistent suffix *-li* in the pairs of oppositions. One cannot, however, say that it is any particular derivational suffix, as the pairs of words in which it occurs cut across several derivational classes. In this regard, there are no regular sequences of derivational affixes. As can be seen, the rest of the morphological changes in these oppositions do not involve affixation but rather internal vowel changes as in pairs 1 and 2 on the table. This near lack of derivational morphology with respect to the verb is not surprising in such languages where verb serialization is very productive. Within African languages there seems to be an interesting relation between verb serialization and verbal extensions; the two possibly have complementary functions. It seems that languages with a rich verb serialization system will necessarily have a poor verb derivational system and vice versa. This is an interesting comparative research agenda, at least, within African linguistics.

#### **3.2.2 Adverbs**

The most recurrent morphophonological structure of adverbs in Dagaare is a reduplicated structure, as shown in (35a), though there are some others deviating from this recurrent structure, e.g. (35b). Example sentences are provided in (36) to show how this main group of adverbs is used.


#### **3.2.3 Pluractional verbal constructions**

In Dagaare and some other languages, number is not exclusively a nominal system of singular and plural nouns. Plurality of action can also be expressed in the verbal system. Plurality here can mean that the action is repeated several times or that the same action affects several entities. Pluraction is a quite complex morphological process in Dagaare that cannot be discussed at length here, and I will simply provide some constructions in (37) that illustrate the syntactic restrictions involved in the expression of the phenomenon. In (37a), we have an action, cutting, that affects a couple of entities, the hands. As such this plurality is expressed inside the verbal predicate. In (37b), the action affects only one entity, and as such, the plurality expressed within the verbal predicate is ungrammatical. In (37c), we have a normal case of the action affecting only one entity with no marked plurality inside the predicate.

	- b. \* à 1sg nǔ hand ngmàà-r-ɛ̀ɛ̀ cut-pl-pfv lá foc 'My hand is cut.'
	- c. à def mí-rì rope-sg ngmàà-ɛ̀ cut-pfv lá foc 'The rope is cut.'
	- d. \* à def mí-rì rope-sg ngmàà-r-ɛ̀ɛ̀ cut-pl-pfv lá foc 'The rope is cut.'
	- e. à def mí-è rope-pl ngmàà-r-ɛ̀ɛ̀ cut-pl-pfv lá foc 'The ropes are cut.'
	- f. à def mí-rì rope-sg ngmààré cut ngmàà-r-ɛ̀ɛ̀ cut-pl-pfv lá foc 'The rope is cut at several places.'

In (37d)-(37e), we expect a normal case of an unacceptable plural affix within the predicate and an acceptable case of the same expressed plurality, respectively. However, in (37f), we are faced with a case in which even though the entity is single, we still have an acceptable plural affix within the verbal predicate. This

needs explanation. One important observation is that the verb is repeated, reduplicated. Reduplication is the next issue to explain in this grammatical sketch. Pluraction seems to be definable, not just in terms of the number of entities the predicate action affects, nor on the number of occurrences on the same entity in the same place, but also on various parts it occurs on the same entity.

### **3.3 Other word classes and morphological processes**

In this section, I discuss the additional word class of ideophones and the general morphological processes of reduplication and compounding.

### **3.3.1 Ideophones**

Trask (1993: 131–132) defines an ideophone as "[O]ne of a grammatically distinct class of words, occurring in certain languages, which typically express either distinctive sounds or visually distinctive types of action." Ideophones have a specific morphophonological structure in Dagaare that no other word class consistently exhibits. First, it generally has a three-syllable structure. Second, the vowels of the first syllable are copied on to the subsequent syllables. Third, and quite importantly, there is usually only one tonal quality, either low or high, on the entire stretch of the three-syllable word. Fourth, each ideophone can be produced either as a uniquely low tone lexeme or as a uniquely high tone one, with a slight variation in meaning. The low-toned ones refer to heavier, longer, or fatter entities, while the high-toned ones refer to lighter, shorter and thinner entities. These are shown in (38), with example sentences in (39).


b. bíní excreta lá top ká comp ó 3sg nyɛ̀ shit bìng, put-down, vàrkpàrà idph 'It is excreta s/he has shit.'


Another aspect of ideophones is that, besides having their unique morphophonology, which is quite different from those of comparative word classes like adverbs, adjectives and verbs, they, again unlike these other word classes, do not seem to have independent semantics. As can be seen from the above glosses and transliterations, it is hard to pin them down and assign denotational, dictionary meanings to them. They depend on adjacent words and other contexts for their meaning. This again makes this class of words unique in the language. It seems that there are compelling reasons for setting up a word class of ideophones in Dagaare. From a comparative point of view, these facts of ideophones raise important empirical issues for discussing linguistic categorization.

### **3.3.2 Reduplication**

Reduplication is a pervasive morphological process across the languages of the world. It involves repetition or multiple occurrence of a morphological entity within a larger unit. Formally, two types are recognized, partial and full reduplication. In the (40), I illustrate full reduplication involving verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and partial reduplication involving an ideophone.


In a partial reduplication, not all the material of the segment being repeated is carried over, hence we have *vɛ̀ng* becoming *vɛ̀* in the case of the partial reduplication. A notion of reduplicative compounds exists in Dagaare. In this morphological process, a compound is formed by repeating or bringing together certain

segments if even they belong to different word classes to form agentive nouns. This is illustrated in (41).


This kind of phenomenon occurs in South-East Asian languages like Tagalog and Malay and should constitute a useful area of comparison between African and Asian languages. While the forms of reduplication are interesting in themselves, the way the morphological process functions across languages is also interesting. In Dagaare, as may be seen in (40), it involves intensity and also a constant repetition of the action. But this is by no means universal, as reduplication can also express less of something in some languages. In some languages like Cantonese, it can express the diminutive. Again this should provide the framework of useful comparisons between Asian and African languages.

### **3.3.3 Compounding**

Compounding has already been discussed in some of the above morphological processes. It is a very productive process in the language. Many new words and expressions are formed through compounding of several entities including noun+affix (42a), noun+adjective (42b), noun + noun (42c), verb + verb (42d), verb + noun (+ affix) (42e), and even elements of a phrase (42f).


In this part of the grammatical sketch, I provide brief comments about the structure of the simple sentence including word order, voice, polarity, adpositions, and comparison. I also provide illustrations of more complex sentence formation involving relativization, question formation, small clause constructions, serialization, and serial verb nominalization. I end the chapter with a survey of discourse particles, involving especially topic and focus in the language.

## **4.1 Sentence types**

Dagaare is basically an SVO language, although there are some complications when we deal with much more complex sentences than the basic ones. It therefore means that verbal elements in the most unmarked cases come after the subject NP and before the object NP if there is any. There are three basic types of sentences in Dagaare: the verbless sentence, the simple sentence, and complex sentences. Verbless sentences do not have an overt verb in the structure. Here are two examples:


I now discuss the other two types of sentences in the following sections.

## **4.2 The simple sentence**

One of the most distinctive aspects of general Mabia syntax is the presence of particles between the subject NP at the beginning of a canonical declarative sentence and the main verb. These particles, traditionally termed preverbal particles, express most of the temporal and modal aspects of the sentence. Another distinctive aspect is the presence of a postverbal particle that expresses polarity and focus phenomena. The following schema characterizes the Dagaare simple declarative sentence involving a transitive verb.

(45) Subject NP |preverbal particles - main verb - postverbal particle| Object NP

I now describe each of these parts of the simple sentence, illustrating with (46).

(46) Dàkóráá Dakoraa dà pst nyúú-ró drink-impf lá foc à def kòɔ́ water à def dìè room póɔ́ postp 'Dakoraa was drinking the water in the room.'

In (46), *Dàkóráá* is the subject NP. No special affixes and particles mark the subject NP in Dagaare, hence it is not an ergative language. Grammatical functions are marked mainly by positional distribution in the sentence, with the subject occurring before the verb in a canonical declarative sentence, as is the case with the sentence above. This is followed by the preverbal particle *dà*, which expresses the temporal features of the construction. We then have the main verb, *nyúú-rò*. The suffixal parts of the main verb express the aspectual features of the construction. The postverbal particle is *lá*; it functions as a focus particle. It may also mark features of polarity. Finally *à kòɔ́* is the object NP of the sentence. This is followed by an adverbial phrase comprising an NP, *à díè* and a locative postposition, *póɔ́*. The pervasive use of body part postpositions, rather than prepositions, is another distinctive aspect of Dagaare and Gur syntax. This basic declarative sentence provides the basis for a number of syntactic alternations expressing aspect (perfective/imperfective), mood (imperative), polarity (negation/positivity), voice (unaccusative) and for encoding more complex thought with constructions such as relativization, serialization, and serial verb nominalization. In the following, I shall briefly illustrate these various syntactic alternations.

### **4.2.1 Imperative**

This syntactic structure functions to compel (47) or exhort (48) an interlocutor or other participant in a speech situation. A special feature of the exhortative or the hortative is that it imposes an inherent high tone on any preceding pronoun (48).


#### **4.2.2 Negation**

Negation is expressed in Dagaare by preverbal particles. Negation has a relationship to mood in the language. We may distinguish between a negative declarative particle as in (49) and negative imperative particle as in (50).


The postverbal particle is mutually exclusive with the negative particle in such negation constructions, as shown in (51).

	- b. tè 1pl dà pst bá neg gàà go dàá market 'We did not go to the market.'
	- c. \* tè 1pl dà pst bá neg gáá go lá foc dàá market 'We did not go to the market.'

### **4.2.3 Comparative constructions**

Verbs/adjectives like *gàngè* 'more than', *sèɛ̀* 'better than', and *zùò* 'more than', which mean 'over', 'pass', etc., are used to express the comparison of different items within the Dagaare sentence. Here are examples:


(54) fò 2sg dèmé own.pl zùó pass lá foc ǹ 1sg dèmé own.pl 'Yours are more than mine.'

### **4.3 Complex sentences**

Complex sentences serve to encode the relationship between two or more ideas, entities and events. The relationship may be one of conjunction, relational, sequential, or the quest for information about another idea, entity or event.

### **4.3.1 Coordination and Subordination**

Several ways of conjoining sentences exist in Dagaare. For a more extensive presentation, see Bodomo (1997b). There are about seven coordinating conjunctions and four subordinating conjunctions in the language. These are *à*, *àné*, *kyɛ́*, *kyɛ́ kà*, *béé* and *kyɛ́ béé* and *ká*, *kà*, *ká kà* and *nàng* respectively. The two sentences below in (55) and (56) illustrate one case each of coordinating and subordinating conjunctions respectively.


### **4.3.2 Relativization**

Relativization in Dagaare involves embedding one construction into another, usually rendered by an overt relativizing element which occurs after the noun in question.

(57) ɑ̀ def dɔ́ɔ́ man ná rel náng rel záà yesterday wà come kyɛ̂ here nyú drink lá foc à def kòɔ́ water 'The man who came here yesterday drank the water.'

The usual relativizing element is a complex, *(ná) náng*, involving an optional first element. The relativizing complex is neutral for human and non-human nouns.

#### **4.3.3 Question formation**

Dagaare presents some challenges to the so-called wh-parameter, which determines whether wh-expressions, in the case of Dagaare, *bòńg*-expressions (Bodomo 1997b), can or cannot be moved to the front of the sentence. Consider the following sentences:

	- b. bòng WH lá foc ká that ó 3sg bóɔ́-rɔ̀ want-impf 'What does s/he want?'
	- c. ò 3sg bóɔ́-rɔ̀ want-impf lá foc bóng WH 'What does he want?'
	- b. yèng WH lá foc ká that fó 2sg gɛ̀-rɛ́ go-impf 'Where are you going?'
	- b. fò 2sg yúórí name lá foc bóng WH 'What is your name?'
	- c. ?? bóng WH lá foc fò 2sg yúór̀ name 'What is your name?'

In each of the above sentences, the (b.) and (c.) are questions inquiring about the second NP of the (a.) sentences. The question word is freely found both at the beginning and at the end of the question constructions. This seems to contravene the wh-parameter pervasive in the principles and parameters approach

to grammar. Such analyses claim that languages may be parametrized to be whfronting or in situ languages. The above data shows that Dagaare seems to be at both sides of the parameter. It must, however, be observed that the (c.) question construction is unnatural in the language.

### **4.3.4 Small clause constructions**

Small clause constructions involve a complex of at least two clauses. While the first clause may have overt verbal predicate elements, the second or subsequent clause may not have an overtly expressed verbal predicate. This second or subsequent part is termed a reduced clause or a small clause. Here are two examples.

	- b. ò 3sg tú dig.pfv lá foc à def bògí hole sígí go.down 'S/he dug the hole deep.'

Alongside such small clause constructions, in the form of object depictive resultative predicates as we have in (61) and (62a), Dagaare also has a serial verb constructions, as in (62b). Serialization is the next typical syntactic construction to be discussed.

### **4.3.5 Verb serialization**

Verb serialization (or the serial verb construction) is a productive syntactic process in Dagaare and many other West African languages. Hardly any analysis of these languages can be successfully undertaken without an understanding of the basic properties of this pervasive grammatical construction. The following example illustrates a serial verb construction, involving as many as four verbs within the construction.

(63) Dàkóráá Dakoraa nà fut dé take lá foc à def kúúrí stone zá throw lɔ́ɔ́ fall èng put à def kòɔ̀ water póɔ́ inside 'Dakoraa will throw the stone into the water.'

Many issues have been raised within the literature about these constructions and they continue to be discussed (e.g. Bodomo 1993; 1997b,a). Some of these are whether the serial verb construction consists of one clause or a series of clauses; whether we can arrive at a definitive typology of serial verbs; whether the complex of verbs expresses a single event or not; and how we can account for the fact that many of the verbs in the series share grammatical functions such as subject and object. This syntactic process can be altered in several ways, one being the serial verb nominalization.

#### **4.3.6 Serial verb nominalization**

In the serial verb nominalization, the object of a declarative serial verbal sentence (64a) gets "moved" to the beginning of the construction, and the second gets a nominal affix attached to it (64b). The whole construction is a nominalized phrase.

	- b. à def kòɔ̀ water dé take nyú-ù drink-nmlz 'the drinking of the water.'
	- c. à def kòɔ̀ water dé take nyú-ù drink-nmlz bá neg è be yèl-sòńg deed-good 'The drinking of the water is not a good thing (to do).'

This nominalized construction can form part of a sentence, and is indeed mostly the subject of a more complete sentential construction (64c). This construction is unique in Dagaare and a few other Mabia languages, but largely absent in the Kwa languages of West Africa, such as Akan. This construction has not been widely examined in the linguistic literature, especially in the light of nominalization across languages. Bodomo (1997b,a) and Bodomo (2004b) provide a useful point of departure for such a cross linguistic study.

### **4.4 Discourse phenomena**

In this section, I will first list and briefly comment on some expressive particles, which express various types of feelings on the part of the speaker during a dis-

course situation. The various types of emotive feelings and the particles that encode them include the following:

*nàng*: expression of politeness, as in 65.

(65) nàng part dé take à def gánè book nyɛ̀ dem. kó give má 1sg 'Please, give me this book.'

*wɛ̀*, *yáà*: pleading tone, as in (66) and softening particle, as in (67), in the sense of extenuating a command or a potentially harsh tone:


*àɪ́*, *wɛ̀*: exasperation, as shown in (68).

(68) àɪ́ part wɛ̀, part ìrì get.up à def kyɛ̌ here 'Oh please, get up from here!'

*mɔ̀ɔ̀*, *bée*, *mɔ̀ɔ̀ béé*: question/interrogation in (69a) and (69b); exclamation in (69c):

	- b. fò 2sg mɔ̀ɔ́ part kòng neg gángè lie.down bèè part 'Won't you lie down /sleep overnight?'
	- c. yɛlɛ́ ́ matter mɔ̀ɔ̀ part béé part 'Oh, what matter = Oh, my God!'

*wóówóóì*, *ǹ sáá wóóI*, *ǹ má wóóì*: pain, as in (70a), which is actually used in situations of mourning; surprise, as in (70b).

	- b. wóó, part bòng why lá foc ká comp ó 3sg déɛ̀ just gángè lie.down lɛ̌ that.way 'Oh, why is s/he just lying down that way?'

This list is not exhaustive but only just indicative of the particles and the feelings they encode in discourse situations. This aspect of Dagaare still awaits a detailed study. It is interesting both with respect to language internal considerations and to typological considerations.

A second aspect of discourse phenomena that I will briefly address involves two particles and their variants which tend to express topic and focus phenomena in the language.

### **4.4.1 Topic**

The topic of a sentence or enunciation is that element on which the rest of the sentence (the comment) refers to. Dagaare is much like English and many other languages in which the topic is normally realized by the unmarked grammatical subject (71a).

	- b. à def dɔ́ɔ́ man nyɛ́ this éng top (ò) (3sg) kú-ló go.home-impf lá foc 'As for this man, he is going home.'
	- b. màà 1sg.str. éǹg top (ǹ) (1sg) nà fut nyú drink lá foc kóɔ́ water 'As for me, I will drink water.'

However, there are instances in which the grammatical subject is associated with an element, top, that topicalizes the whole NP entity. This NP entity is co-referential with an optional resumptive subject pronoun, as indicated in (71b).

This is the case of a marked topic construction in Dagaare. Dagaare has two types of alternate pronominal subjects in its pronominal system–known as weak and strong pronouns (Bodomo 1997b). Unmarked grammatical subjects use the weak subject pronouns, as in (72a). When pronominal subjects are topicalized, it is the strong pronouns that are used, as exemplified in (72b).

#### **4.4.2 Focus**

The particle *lá* and its variants expresses focus among many other functions. Trask (1993: 105) defines focus as "[S]pecial prominence given to some element in a sentence which represents the most important new information in that sentence or which is explicitly contrasted with something else." Virtually any part of the sentence can be focused in Dagaare. The sentence in (73a) may be focused in various ways, or rather parts of it may be emphasized in various ways. First, the sentence as a whole, in its neutral form, is marked with the particle *lá*, which acts as a default focus or assertive/factitive marker. It has been glossed variously as foc, ass, or fact. This is just a subset of the many ways the particle *lá* may be used in Dagaare (Bodomo 1997b,a; Kropp Dakubu & Saanchi 1998) and other Mabia languages. Having illustrated the use of the focus particle with respect to the whole sentence, we now illustrate argument focus, predicate focus and adjunct focus in the Dagaare sentence.

	- b. Dàkóráá Dakoraa là foc dà pst dì eat sááó saao à def bágúó morning nyɛ́ dem 'It is DAKORAA that ate saao this morning.'
	- c. sááó saao lá foc kà comp Dàkóráá Dakoraa dà pst dì eat à def bágúó morning nyɛ́ dem 'It is SAAO that Dakoraa ate this morning.'
	- d. bágúó morning nyɛ́ dem lá foc kà comp Dàkóráá Dakoraa dà pst dì eat sááó saao 'It was THIS MORNING that Dakoraa ate saao.'
	- e. Díí-ú eat-nmlz lá foc kà comp Dàkóráá Dakoraa dà pst dì eat à def sááó saao 'Dakoraa ATE the saao.' (What he did was eat the saao.)

Any argument position may be focused in Dagaare. The structure in (73b) illustrates subject focus. The subject NP *Dàkóráá* is being emphasized as the actor and not any other entity. To focus the subject, the subject NP is preposed and the focus marker, foc, comes right after it. Unlike other languages like Yoruba where a pronominal clitic may occupy the position from which the NP subject is preposed, this does not happen in Dagaare. The structure in (73c) illustrates object focus. In this type of focus, a complementizer, comp, is introduced in the structure. It comes right after the focus marker and before the subject/actor of the sentence. The structure in (73d) illustrates adjunct focus. The adverbial, *à bágúó nyɛ́*, is focused. The following features of focus obtain. First, the adverbial is preposed. Next, it is immediately succeeded by the focus particle, and, finally, a complementizer, comp, follows the focus marker. Predicates may be also focused. First, the verbal predicate is nominalized and preposed, as shown in (73e). However, unlike the situation with argument focus, the preposed predicate still has a verbal copy in situ. As with object focus, however, the focus particle and the complementizer occur after the focused predicate item.

From the above, a rule for focusing elements in a Dagaare sentence seems to emerge. In each instance, the focus element *lá* comes immediately after the focused element, which is preposed. However, depending on the type of focus in question, we may or may not have a copy of the focused (preposed) item in situ. Also, we may or may not have a complementizer element right after the focus marker.

#### **4.4.3 Focus and Negation**

The above illustrates focus with respect to declarative, affirmative constructions in the language. However, sentences with negation may also be focused. I shall illustrate this with the structure in (74a), which is the negative version of (73a). As can be seen in (74b), the focus element in the form of *lá* cannot co-occur with the negative particle *dà* in the same sentence.

	- b. \* Dàkóráá Dakoraa dà pst bá neg dì eat là foc à def sááó saao bágúó morning sángà period 'Dakoraa did not eat the saao this morning.'

From the above it may be noticed that the negative focus particle *náá* has identical distribution with its positive counterpart *lá* regarding the syntax of focus constructions in Dagaare. Argument and predicate focus are deployed in the same way as for positive focus in the language.

## **References**


## **Dagaare dictionary**

**by Mark Ali and Scott Grimm**

## **a**

a


**ãa** [ã̀ã́] *adv.* **(1)** yes (answer to a call)

**•** *N boɔle la a bie ka o sage ka*

*"ãa."* I called the child and he answered, "Yes." **(2)** what? (exclamation of disbelief) **•** *Ka Naa boɔle fo ka fo zagere, ãa.* You refuse to answere the chief's call, what?


**aaŋ** [áàŋ] *interj.* well then


*Abaa, fo waa bie.* Well done, you are a good child. **(2)** exclamation of despair or being distraught **•** *Abaa, vɛŋ a zɔɔre lɛ.* Oh, stop the fight.


**pɔlaa age** to be frightened


**ai** [àí] *part.* no


The thieves have robbed my friend again, how awful! *Var.* **akuroku**

**akuroku** [àkúrókú] *interj.* emphatic form of aku *Var.* **akuraku; aku**

**akuu** [àkúú] *interj.* expression indicating one's inability to do a task **•** *Akuu, ta ko ma, N koŋ toɔ̂ a tuori tuo.* Ei, don't kill me; I can't carry the load.

**Ala** [álà] *n.* God


early. **(2)** although, despite **•** *Ane ka zie e la kpeɛŋaa kyɛ noba mine naŋ ba sage dɔge seŋ lɛ puori tuubu.* Although times are hard, some people do not want to practise family planning. **(3)** with **•** *O pɔge daa la a dɔɔ ane o faŋa zaa ka o te le.* The woman pushed the man with all her strength and he fell over.


**annoo** [ánnʊ́ʊ́] *pron.* who; which

person (interrogative pronoun) *Var.* **aŋ la o**


**anwoŋ** [ánwóŋ] *n.* one who is great or strong (physically or spiritually) *pl:* **annwonni** *2pl:* **anwonnee**


*bibile na.* S/he cries like a baby. *Var.* **ŋa**


**Aŋkara** [àŋkàrà] *n.* Accra *pl:* **Aŋkarre** *2pl:* **Aŋkarrɛɛ**

**aŋko** [áŋkò] *n.* river blindness *pl:* **aŋkori** *2pl:* **aŋkoree**

**aŋkorɔ** [áŋkʊ̀rɔ́] *n.* barrel, drum *pl:* **aŋkorre** *2pl:* **aŋkorɛɛ/aŋkorrɛɛ** *Var.* **aŋkora**

**ão** [ã̀ʊ̃ ̀] *interj.* of course (expression of certainty) **•** *A. Fo na kuli la be? B. ão.* A. Will you go home? B. Of course I willl.

**apa** [ápà] *interj.* expression of unpleasant surprise **•** *A soɔŋaa muri*

*la a baa bare kyɛ zo, apa.* The rabbit dodged the dog and escaped, what a pity. *Var.* **aparapa**


**are** [árɪ]́ *v. pl.* to cut, harvest (maize)


the branches tore off. **arɛɛ, ara, ara, areba, araa, areba**


**ata ata** in threes


shirt cost you? **(2)** how many (nonhuman) **•** *Teere awola ka yɛ sɛle?* How many trees did you plant?


**ayi ayi** in twos

**ayililili** [áyílílílí] *interj.* joyous, shrill shouting in commendation (usually by women) **•** *A pɔgeba*

*ŋmɛ la kulinni, ayililili, eŋ a bawaseɛrebɛ.* The women made shrill noises of commendation for the dancers. *Var.* **ayiyiyiyi**


**Azaasoba** [àzàásʊ́bá] *n.* almighty

## **b**

**ba** [bá] *adv.* not (negative particle) **•** *N ba nyɛ o zenɛ.* I have not seen him today.

**ba** [bà] *pron.* **(1)** they, them (3rd person plural weak form human) **•** *Ba na wa la.* They will come. **(2)** their (3rd person possessive human)**•** *Te de la ba bondirii biŋ.* We have reserved their food. **(3)** them (human) **•** *Te de la a bondirii ko ba.* We have given them the food.

**ba** [bà] *v.* to fix a pointed object

firmly in the ground **•** *Ba ba la daare gɔlle a dabɔgɔ zaa.* They have put up planks around the whole garden. **baɛ, baara, baara, bareba, baaraa**

**ba** [bà] *v.* to take a long drink from a container **•** *A saana de la a kõɔ ba lɛɛ ka a ŋmane wa te kyɛre.* The stranger drank deeply until the calabash was empty. **baɛ, baara, baara, bareba, baaraa**

**ba** [bá] *v.* to gallop **baɛ, baara, baara,**

**bareba, baaraa**


**baaebaae** [bááɪbááɪ ́ ]́ *interj.* goodbye


**baalombiiree**


**baaluuri** *2pl:* **baaluuree**


**bale** [bálɪ]́ *v.* **(1)** avoid, evade **•** *O*

*daare to ma lɛnso ka o maŋ wa nyɛ ma bale.* She insulted me the last time, and that's why she avoids me when she sees me. **(2)** divert **•** *Ba naŋ da beɛrɛ a baa ba bale la a sori.* When they were constucting the bridge, they diverted the road. **balɛɛ, bala, bala, baleba, balaa, baleba**


ies of water, whose dry stalks are used for weaving *sg:* **bamoɔnoo** *pl:* **bamoore** *2pl:* **bamoorɛɛ**


that has many compartments *pl:* **bapimbaare** *2pl:* **bapimbaarɛɛ**


attention

**bare yɛŋe** to feel free, to relax

**bare** [bàrɪ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to cultivate seeds **•** *A pɔge bare la kommie a dabɔge poɔ.* The woman has cultivated tomato seeds in the garden. **(2)** to offer firstfruits to the gods **•** *Bɔgebogereba maŋ bare la bompaala kyɛ baŋ di.* Diviners normally offer firstfruits to their gods before

eating. **barɛɛ, bara, bara, bareba, baraa, bareba**

**barekanneɛbaa** [bàrɪkánnɪ ̀ ɛ́ báá] ́ *n.* local spirits (alcohol) *pl:* **barekanneɛbaare** *2pl:* **barekanneɛbaarɛɛ**


**basasale** [bàsàsàlɪ]́ *n.*slippery waterway *2pl:* **basasalɛɛ**

**ba-soɔmee** [bà-sʊ́ɔ́mɪɪ́]́ *n.* weak and sickly dog *Var.* **ba-sakɔre**

**bataabo** [bátáábʊ́] *n.* the state of not having anything

**batara** [bátárá] *n.* poor or needy person *pl:* **batareba** *2pl:* **batarebɛɛ**

**batuo** [bátúó] *n.* bosom friend *pl:* **batuuri** *2pl:* **batuuree** *Var.* **bakore bapare, bameŋɛ, babiri**

**bavilime** [bàvílímé] *n.* lake *pl:* **bavilimeri** *2pl:* **bavilimee**


**Bayaayiri** [báyààyírí] *n.* **(1)** a settlement in the Upper West Region **(2)** ancestors' dwelling; next world

**Bayuo** [báyúó] *n.* name traditionally given to a male child born on a funeral day *2pl:* **bayumine**

**bazẽe** [bàzɪ̃ɪ́̃]̀ *n.* blood of a dog *2pl:* **bazeenɛɛ**

**bazele** [bàzɪlɪ̀ ]́ *n.* tongue of a dog *pl:* **bazelɛ** *2pl:* **bazelɛɛ**


**be** [bɪ]́ *conj.* or **•** *Fo na gaa la be?* Will you go or not? *Var.* **bee**

**bebe** [bèbé] *adj.* present, available


**beenɛɛ, beenɛ, beenɛ, beenemɛ, beenaa**


**bele** [bɪlɪ́ ]́ *n.* yeast *pl:* **belɛ** *2pl:* **belɛɛ**


**bɛraa** [bɛ̀ràá] *n.* razor *pl:* **bɛrre** *2pl:* **bɛrrɛɛ**


**bie** [bíé] *n.* child *pl:* **biiri** *2pl:* **biiree**


**bimaraa** [bìmáráá] *n.* baby sling *pl:* **bimarre** *Var.* **maraa**


**binne, binne, binime, binnaa, binime**


ter. **biree, bire, bire, biribe, biraa, biribe**


or strange) **•** *Yeŋ ka fo ta pɔge a bombalaa ŋa?* Where did you get this kind of thing?


**bombiruu** *pl:* **bombie** *2pl:* **bombiiree**


**bombɔ** [bʊ́mbɔ́] *n.* quest for wealth


**bompaare** [bǒmpáárɪ]̀ *n.* foot rot *pl:* **bompaɛ** *2pl:* **bompɛɛrɛɛ**


**bompɛnne** [bʊ́mpɛ̀nnɪ]̀ *n.* the act of carving


find **(2)** an easy find *pl:* **bompiiri**


bondaaraa

**daanema/bondaama** *2pl:* **bondaamɛɛ/bondaanɛɛ**


**bonfaa** [bʊ́nfáá] *n.* a bad or evil thing *pl:* **bonfaare** *2pl:* **bonfaarɛɛ bonfaa** [bʊ́nfáà] *n.* robbery


that threatens *pl:* **bonfuuri** *2pl:* **bonfuuree**


**bonlane** [bʊ́nlánɪ]́ *n.* uncastrated animal *pl:* **bonlama** *2pl:* **bonlamɛɛ**

**bonlee** [bʊ́nléé] *n.* a small thing e.g. object/nonhuman *pl:* **bombilii** *Var.* **bombile**

**bonlee** [bònléé] *n.* colt, young donkey *pl:* **bombilii**


**bonni** [bónní] *v.* **(1)** to burn (pain) **(2)** to burn with fire **bonnee, bonno, bonno, bonnaa, bonimo**

**bonnimiri** [bʊ́nnímírì] *n.* something that is very valuable *pl:* **bonnimie** *2pl:* **bonimiiree**

**bonnoɔ** [bʊ́nnʊ̀ɔ̀] *n.* a sweet thing *pl:* **bonnoore** *2pl:* **bonnoorɛɛ**

**bonnyaa** [bʊ́nɲáà] *n.* **(1)** chest of; **(2)** most important part of *pl:* **bonnyaane** *2pl:* **bonnyaanɛɛ**

**bonnyaanaa** [bʊ́nɲáànáà] *n.* a clever or wise animal *pl:* **bonnyaane**

**bonnyaara** [bʊ́nɲàárɪ]̀ *n.* coarseness (flour) *2pl:* **bonnyaarɛɛ**

**bonnyagere** [bʊ́nɲágɪrɪ́ ]́ *n.* intestines of nonhuman creatures *pl:* **bonnyaga** *2pl:* **bonnyagerɛɛ**

**bonnyaŋaa** [bʊ́nɲáŋáá] *n.* female *pl:* **bonnyaŋene/bonnyaane** *2pl:* **bonnyaanɛɛ**

**bonnyaŋaa** [bònɲàŋáà] *n.* female donkey *pl:* **boŋnyaŋene** *2pl:* **boŋnyaŋenɛɛ**

**bonnyuu** [bʊ́nɲúú] *n.* **(1)**something that smells **(2)** smelling medicinal lotion *pl:* **bonnyuuri** *2pl:* **bonyuuree**

**bonnyuu** [bʊ́nɲúú] *n.* the neck of something *pl:* **bonnyuuri** *2pl:* **bonyuuree**

**bonnyuuraa** [bʊ́nɲúúráá] *n.* **(1)** something that is drunk; a drink **(2)** something that is used for drinking *pl:* **bonnyuuri**

**bononnoonaa** [bʊ̀nʊ́nnʊ́ʊ́náá] *n.* a type of tree with juicy fruits *Var.* **bodaanonnoonaa**

**bonoone** [bʊ̀nʊ̀ʊ̀nɪ]̀ *n.* a type of tree with fleshy edible fruits; medicinal *pl:* **bonooma** *2pl:* **bonoonɛɛ**

**bonɔbonɔ** [bʊ̀nɔ̀bʊ̀nɔ̀] *adv.* oilylooking **•** *A zeɛre zu deɛ e la bonɔbonɔ lɛ.* The surface of the soup looks oily. *Var.* **bonabona**

**bonsãa** [bʊ́nsã̀ã̀] *n.* the act of being wasteful, destructive

**bonsaalaa** [bʊ́nsààlàà] *n.* something that is smooth *pl:* **bonsaale** *2pl:* **bonsaalɛɛ**

**bonsaaloŋ** [bʊ́nsààlʊ́ŋ] *n.* a slippery thing *pl:* **bonsaale** *2pl:* **bonsaalɛɛ**

**bonsaana** [bʊ́nsáánà] *n.* a new or strange thing *pl:* **bonsaama** *2pl:* **bonsaanɛɛ**

**bonsaana** [bʊ́nsááná] *n.* one who destroys *pl:* **bonsaanema**

**bonsaanaa** [bʊ́nsáánáá] *n.* a spoilt thing *pl:* **bonsaane** *2pl:* **bonsaanɛɛ**

**bonsammo** [bʊ́nsàmmʊ́] *n.* unshelled nut *pl:* **bonsama** *2pl:* **bonsamɛɛ**

**bonsaraa** [bʊ́nsáràà] *n.* a young female *pl:* **bonsarre** *2pl:* **bonsarɛɛ**

**bonseenaa** [bʊ́nsɪɪ́náà] ́ *n.*something that is touched *pl:* **boseene** *2pl:* **bonseenɛɛ**

**bonseɛraa** [bʊ́nsɪɛ́ ráá] ́ *n.* **(1)** something that is worn on the waist **(2)** something that is sewn *pl:* **bonseɛre** *2pl:* **bonseɛrɛɛ**


about **(2)** rheumatism *pl:* **bonyoɔre** *2pl:* **bon-yoɔrɛɛ**


*bɔgele la wɛdoŋɔ a pɔge o ŋmɛ.* A hunter will normally stalk a wild animal to get close enough to shoot. **(2)** to feel, to move one's hand over **•** *A zɔŋɔ bɔgele la a gado zu te*


through the initiation process for a cult *pl:* **bɔgetaŋkpolli** *2pl:* **bɔgetaŋkpolee** *Var.* **bagetaŋkpolo**


drunk. **bugee, bugiro, bugiro, bugiribo, bugiraa**


*bukulo.* Fire has burnt the house completely.


**buli** [búlí] *n.* sprout *pl:* **bulo**


*mogebo.* He likes eating unsoaked flour. *pl:* **burri** *2pl:* **burree**


**buulo** [búúló] *n.* something that complements or adorns another thing **•** *Nɔtoro e la dɔɔ noɔre buulo.* A mustache complements a man's mouth.

**buulunwala** [bùùlùnwálá] *n.* light porridge *2pl:* **buulunwalɛɛ**

**buulunwoɔlɔ** [bùùlùnwʊ́ɔ́lɔ́] *n.* por-

## **d**


game. **daɛ, daara, daara, daareba, daaraa, daareba**

**da lɔɔ** to push or blow down


ridge used in the preparation of TZ *2pl:* **buulunwoɔlɛɛ** *Var.* **buulunwoɔla**


day. *pl:* **daare** *2pl:* **darɛɛ**


**dãabeerɛ** [dã́ã́bɪɪ̀rɛ̀ ]́ *n.* second stage

in brewing pito *2pl:* **dãabeerɛɛ**


**dãagyemɛ** [dã́ágyɪmɛ ́ ]́ *n.* pito soda


**Daana** [dááná] *n.* God


*na te waana la ka o daane (la) o zaa.* Returning from his trip he had changed completely. **(2)** to steer, to redirect, to turn away **•** *O poɔ sãaɛ la ka o daane o niŋe bare ziyuo.* She was sad and turned her face away. **daanɛɛ, daana, daana, daanema, daanaa, daanema**


**dabuo** [dàbúó] *n.* abandoned house *pl:* **dabori** *2pl:* **daboree**

**dabuori** [dàbúórì] *pron.* when (interrogative pronoun) **•** *Dabuori ka fo tu fo sori na?* When will you make your trip?

**dadagere** [dàdàgɪrɪ́ ]́ *n.* a kind of fish *pl:* **dadaga** *2pl:* **dadagerɛɛ**

**daduŋi** [dàdúŋí] *n.* wood weevil *pl:* **dadunni** *2pl:* **dadunnee**


**dagaareŋ** [dàgààrɪŋ]̀ *adj.* done according to the practices of the Dagaaba **•** *Ziyuo vɛŋɛɛ la ka Dagaareŋ deɛ bɔrɔ.* Civilisation is

killing most of the traditional practices of the Dagaaba.


**Dagbɛmmo** [dàgbɛmmʊ ́ ́] *n.* a native speaker of the Dagbaane language *pl:* **Dagbɛnne** *2pl:* **Dagbɛnnɛɛ**

**Dagbɛnne** [Dàgbɛnnɪ ́ ]́ *n.* Dagbaane language *2pl:* **dagbɛnnɛɛ**


**dakogilee** [dàkògìléé] *n.* small stool *pl:* **dakogibilii** *2pl:* **dakogibilee**

**dakoɔre** [dàkʊ̀ɔ̀rɪ]́ *n.* bachelor *pl:* **dakɔbɔ** *2pl:* **dakoɔrɛɛ**

**dakoɔroŋ** [dàkʊ́ɔ́rʊ́ŋ] *n.* celibacy


**dandayieni** [dándáyíéní] *n.* a type of small toad *pl:* **dandayieme** *2pl:* **dandayiemee/dandayienee** *Var.* **dayieni**

dankyinsɔglaa


**daŋkuuri** [dàŋkúúrí] *n.* stone used to support a cooking pot in the hearth *pl:* **daŋkubo/daŋkurri** *2pl:* **daŋkuree/daŋkuuree**

**daŋŋa** [dáŋŋá] *n.* mischief


**daparenuulee** [dàpàrɪnúúléé] ̀ *n.* cockalo *pl:* **daparenuuli**

**daparoo** [dàpárʊ́ʊ́] *n.* soul or spirit of the dead *sg:* **daparrɛɛ** *2pl:* **daparɛɛ**


**de** [dɪ]̌ *v.* **(1)** to take **(2)** to accept **(3)** to believe **deɛɛ, derɛ, derɛ, derebɛ, deraa, derebɛ**

**de pɔge** to take a wife

**dedeekɔɔ** [dèdéékɔ́ɔ́] *n.* act of standing steadily e.g. a child beginning to walk *Var.* **dedee, dedeekporo, zazaakɔɔ**

**dẽe** [dĩĩ̀]̀ *adv.* unlimited


**dẽɛbaŋ** [dɪ̃ɛ̀ ̃ ̀bàŋ] *n.* drama, play


*ŋa.* The children do not like this play. **(2)** joke **•** *Bonso ka fo de a yelnimize ŋa eŋe deɛne?* Why do you take this serious matter for a joke? **(3)** drama **•** *Zenɛ te na kaa la karembiiri deɛne na naŋ kyaare 'bibiiri emmaaroŋ yɛlɛ'.* Today we shall watch a drama piece by pupils on the title 'children's health'. *2pl:* **deɛnɛɛ** *Var.* **dẽɛdeɛnɛ**


**detaareŋ** [dɪtáárɪ ̀ ŋ]̌ *adv.* 3 years ago **deyɛŋ** [dɪyɛ̀ ŋ]̌ *adv.* last year

**dɛ** [dɛ̀] *v.* pl. to cut to make even (fingernails) **dɛɛ, deɛrɛ, deɛrɛ, deɛrɛ, deɛraa, deɛrebɛ**


**dɛŋe** [dɛŋ]́ *adj.* first

**dɛŋeneŋ** [dɛ̀ŋɪnɪ ́ ŋ]́ *adj.* first instance

**dɛŋɛɛ** [dɛ̀ŋɛ̀ɛ̀] *adj.* plentiful


**di naŋ** to be scarce

**di naaloŋ** to gain wealth or author-

ity; ascend the throne

**di neɛ** (of a person) to be worthless

**di noɔ** to enjoy

**di sane** to owe

**di seebo** to harvest, to collect (honey from a hive)


*a lɔɔre ka noba perre.* The tree fell on the car and injured some people. **(2)** to pile up **•** *A boɔre la dii taa do teɛ a dasɛrɛɛ.* The bags are packed on top of each other up to the ceiling. **diiee, diire, dire, diiribe/diiribee, diiraa**


**dikpaare** [dìkpáárɪ]́ *n.* back of a room *pl:* **dikpaɛ** *2pl:* **dikpaarɛɛ**


of short, very poisonous snake *pl:* **doŋkuuri** *2pl:* **doŋkurree**


**doɔbo** [dʊ́ɔ́bʊ̀] *n.* the act of weeding

**doɔkpangyogele** [dʊ̀ɔ́kpándzʊ̀glɪ]̀ *n.* a large catepillar found on the leaves of the dawadawa tree *pl:* **doɔkpangyoglɔ** *2pl:* **doɔkpangyoglɛɛ** *Var.* **doɔkpankyogele**


**doɔre** [dʊ̀ɔ̀rɪ]́ *adj.* yellow *2pl:* **doɔrɛɛ**

**dopɔge** [dòpɔ́gɪ]́ *n.* female bush pig *pl:* **dopɔgeba** *2pl:* **dopɔgerɛɛ**

**dopɔle** [dòpɔ́lɪ]̀ *n.* young bush pig *pl:* **dopɔlɔ** *2pl:* **dopɔlɛɛ/dopɔllɛɛ**


**dori** [dórí] *n.* joint (stalk of grass) *pl:* **doe** *2pl:* **doree/dorree**


**dɔgɛɛ** [dɔ́gɛɛ́ ]́ *n.* suffering


said. **(3)** disturbance, worry **•** *A pɔge yeli ka o ba boɔrɔ dɔɔne ka anaŋ so ka o yi.* The woman said she did not want trouble and that is why she divorced.


**duoro** [dùòró] *n.* news *2pl:* **duoree**

**duor-tere** [dùòr-tɪrɪ́ ]́ *n.* annoucement, broadcast, information *pl:* **duor-terre** *2pl:* **duorterrɛɛ**


**duorunzẽẽ** [dúórùnzɪ̃ɪ́̃]́ *n.* bilharziasis *2pl:* **duorunzeenɛɛ**

**duoruŋ** [dúórǔŋ] *n.* urine


**•** *A bie zu pɔre la maŋgo ka a daana waana ka o eɛ eŋ.* The boy stole a mango and when he saw the owner coming he took to his heels. **eɛ eŋɛɛ, eɛrɛ ennɛ, eɛ ennɛ, eɛ enemɛ, eɛ ennaa**

**eɛne** [ɪɛ̀ ̀nɪ]̀ *n.* hippopotamus *pl:* **eɛmɛ** *2pl:* **eɛnɛɛ**

**eɛne** [ɪɛ́ nɪ ́ ]́ *n.* claw *sg:* **eɛnoo** *pl:* **eɛmɛ** *2pl:* **eɛnɛɛ**

**eɛne** [ɪɛ̀ nɪ ̌ ]́ *n.* a type of deer *pl:* **eɛmɛ** *2pl:* **eɛmɛɛr**

**eɛne** [ɪɛ̀ nɪ ́ ]́ *adj.* tiny, e.g. fingernail *pl:* **eɛmɛ** *2pl:* **eɛmɛɛ**

**eɛne** [ɪɛ̀ ̀nɪ]̀ *v.* to claw e.g. a cat climbing a wall

**ẽɛo** [ɪ̃ɛ̀ ̃ ̀ʊ̃ ́] *n.* type of deer *pl:* **eɛne** *2pl:* **eɛnɛɛ**

**eɛraa** [ɪɛ́ ̀ráá] *n.* hook, e.g. fishhook *pl:* **eɛre** *2pl:* **eɛrɛɛ**

**eɛre** [ɪɛ́ rɪ́ ]̀ *v.* to wipe away e.g. dirt, tears **eɛrɛɛ, eɛrɛ, eɛrɛ, eɛrebɛ,**

**eɛraa, eɛrebɛ**


ring, spectacles) **(3)** to respect **•** *A seŋe ka bibile maŋ eŋe neŋkpoŋ.* The young should respect the elderly. **eŋɛɛ, ennɛ, ennɛ, enemɛ, ennaa**

**eŋe daa** to set a date **eŋe daa** to beat


### **eŋkpaŋkpoli** [ɪŋkpáŋkpòlì] ́ *n.* naked body *Var.* **eŋkpoŋkpoli, eŋkpoli**


**eŋ noɔre** [ɪŋ nʊ ̀ ́ɔ́rɪ]̀ *v.* to promise

**eŋ poɔ** [ɪŋ pʊ ̀ ́ɔ́] *v.* to empregnate


## **ɛ**

**ɛbaa** [ɛbàà] ́ *n.* crocodile *pl:* **ɛrre** *2pl:* **ɛrrɛɛ**

**ɛlemɛ** [ɛ̀lɪmɛ ̀ ]́ *n.* shellfish *pl:* **ɛlemɛre** *2pl:* **ɛlemɛɛ**


## **f**


**ɛre** [ɛrɪ́ ]̀ *v.* to grind **ɛrɛɛ, ɛrɛ, ɛrɛ, ɛrebɛ, ɛraa, ɛrebɛ**


**faara, fareba, faaraa, fareba**


of one's grip or hold **•** *N nyɔge la a kpãao kyɛ ka o faa.* I caught the guinea fowl but it slipped free and escaped. **faaɛ, faara, faara, fareba, faaraa, faareba**


**fale** [fálɪ]̀ *v.* to slap **falɛɛ, falla, falla, faleba, falaa, faleba fale pareŋ** to spank (a child)


*koŋ nyɛ zie biŋi fo sɛŋɛ.* There is no space in the room; you can't find space for your bed. *pl:* **feelɛ** *2pl:* **feelɛɛ**


*ŋa biŋi, fo na yeli ka fo erɛ feferɛ ka noore wa la a eŋɛ.* If you don't keep your millet well and you make the least move away, fowls will swoop on it. *Var.* **fifire**


**felmaara** [fɪlmáárà] ̀ *n.*sores over the body thought to be incurable e.g. leprosy *Var.* **felmaaroŋ**

**felmaaroŋ** [fɪlmáárʊ ̀ ́ŋ] *n.* sore caused by leprosy or yaws *pl:* **felmaara** *2pl:* **felmaarɛɛ** *Var.* **felmaara**

**felɔɔ** [fɪlɔ̀ ̀ɔ̀] *adv.* of a sparkle

**felpɛmpɛle** [fɪlpɛ ̀ mpɛ ̌ lɪ́ ]́ *n.* scar *sg:* **felpɛmpɛloo** *pl:* **felpɛmpɛlɛ** *2pl:* **felpɛmpɛlɛɛ/felpɛmpɛllɛɛ**


**fɛlefɛle** [fɛlfɛ́ l]́ *adj.* tasteless


**fɛre** [fɛrɪ́ ]́ *adv.* sound of drop of something small and light


**foto** [fótó] *n.* photograph *pl:* **fotori** *2pl:* **fotoree/fotorree**


**fɔŋenɔ/fɔnnɔ, fɔŋemɔ/fɔnemɔ, fɔŋenaa/fɔnnaa, fɔŋenemɔ/fɔnemɔ**


**fuli** [fùlì] *adv.* exit suddenly

**fulo** [fúló] *adv.* entering neatly, without friction **•** *Naazoɔ deɛ e la n nyɔbogiriŋ lɛ fulo.* A fly shot into my nose at once.


furi


# **g**


rows are used *pl:* **fuuri** *2pl:* **fuuree**


### **gaalaa, gaaleba**


her period, then she may be pregnant. **gallɛɛ, galla, galla, galeba, gallaa**


*sori.* The man has placed a plank across the road. **garɛɛ, gara, gara, gareba, garaa, gareba**


**garewaa** [gárɪwáá] ́ *n.* four-gallon tin *pl:* **garewaare** *2pl:* **garewaarɛɛ**

**garoŋ** [gárʊ́ŋ] *n.* sour-tasting substance

**garre** [gárrɪ]́ *v.* to deny **garrɛɛ, garra, garra, gareba, garaa, gareba**

**gasalaa** [gàsàlàà] *adj.* gaping


**gelime** [gélímè] *n.* insanity

**gemee** [géméé] *adj.* mad, insane

**genegene** [gènègènè] *adv.* **(1)** tinted (colour) **•** *A boɔ e la zeɛ genegene.* The goat is tinted brown. **(2)** not appearing clearly **•** *Zie naŋ da wa nyaana genegene la ka o wa.* S/he came when dawn had not clearly set in.

**geŋgeŋ** [géŋgéŋ] *adj.* firmly fixed


**geregere** [gèrègèrè] *adv.* moderately hard e.g. half-cooked yam

**gɛbɛɛ** [gɛ̀bɛɛ́ ]́ *n.* fool, lunatic


**go** [gò] *v.* watch over **goe, goro, goro, goribo, goraa, -** *Var.* **gu**

**gobaa** [gòbàà] *n.* shame, disgrace

**gogo** [gógó] *n.* **(1)** clock **(2)** hour *pl:* **gogori** *2pl:* **gogoree**

**gogobiri** [gògòbírí] *n.* zebu (bull with a humped back) *pl:* **gogobie** *2pl:* **gogobiiree**


**golebɛlɛ** [gʊ̀lɪbɛ̀ ̀lɛ̀] *adj.* lethargic and unsteady (very sick person)

**goligoli** [gòlgólí] *v.* to scribble **goligolee, goligolo, goligolo, golgolibo, golgolaa, golgolibo**

**gollaa** [gólláà] *n.* a game in which players hop on one leg *pl:* **golli** *2pl:* **gollee**

**golle** [gʊ̀llɪ]̀ *v.* to mix up any which way (clothes) **gollɛɛ, gollɔ/golla, gollɔ/golla, golba, gollaa**

**golli** [góllì] *v.* to hop on one leg **gollee, gollo, gollo, golibo, gollaa, golibo**

**goloŋgoloŋ** [gòlòŋgólóŋ] *adv.* long and twisted

**golɔgolɔ** [gʊ́lɔ́gʊ́lɔ́] *adj.* soft and wavy (hair)

**golɔnsomm** [gʊ̀lɔ̀nsʊ̀mm] *adv.* roundish and big

**golɔnsomm** [gʊ́lɔ́nsʊ́mm] *adv.* roundish and small

**gombɔle** [gòmbɔ́lɪ]́ *n.* kapok fruit *pl:* **gombɔlɔ** *2pl:* **gombɔlɛɛ**

**gomɔgomɔ** [gʊ̀mɔ̀gʊ̀mɔ̀] *adv.* not straightforward *Var.* **gomagoma**


**gonni** [gònní] *n.* cotton *sg:* **gonnuu** *pl: 2pl:* **gonnee**


**goŋmane** [góŋmánɪ]́ *n.* one hundred kola nuts *pl:* **goŋmama** *2pl:* **goŋmannɛɛ**


**goɔ** [gʊ́ɔ̀] *n.* thorn *pl:* **goore** *2pl:* **goorɛɛ**

**goɔ** [gʊ̀ɔ̀] *v.* to bend at the trunk **•** *Pɔgeba maŋ goɔ la kaabo kyɛ ŋma.* Women usually hold down guinea corn to cut the head. **goɔɛ, goɔrɔ, goɔrɔ, goɔrbɔ, goɔraa, goɔrbɔ**


**gorgoraa, gorgorba**


#### gba

# **gb**


**gbaalba**


*la saluoni gbantieloo.* He has shot an arrow into the sky.


**gbegili** [gbèglì] *adj.* hard and rigid


is shaky. **gbɛgrɛɛ, gbɛgrɛ, gbɛgrɛ, gbɛgrebɛ, gbɛgraa, gbɛgrebɛ**


**gbɛneɛraa** [gbɛníɛ ́ ráá] ́ *n.* footprint *pl:* **gbɛneɛre** *2pl:* **gbɛneɛrɛɛ**

**gbɛnne** [gbɛ̀nnɪ]̀ *v.* to pluck (leaves) **gbɛnnɛɛ, gbɛnnɛ, gbɛnnɛ, gbɛnemɛ, gbɛnnaa, gbɛnemɛ**


**gire, gbigire, gbigiribe, gbigiraa, gbigiribe**


**gbonnɔ, gbonnɔ, gbonema, gbonnaa, gbonema**


burnt the child and as he struggled to move away he pushed the pot over. **gboree, gboro, gboro, gboribo, gboraa, gboribo**


patient. **(2)** to drink as a couple from one calabash at the same time (traditional kiss) **gbɔɡɛɛ, gbɔɡerɔ, gbɔɡerɔ, gbɔɡerebɔ, gbɔɡeraa**

**gbɔge** [gbɔ̀gɪ]́ *adj.* not full e.g. sack of grain *pl:* **gbɔgere**

**gbɔgele** [gbɔ̀glɪ]̀ *v.* to hold too many things at a time **gbɔgelɛɛ, gbɔgelɔ, gbɔgelɔ, gbɔgelebɔ, gbɔgelaa**

**gbɔgele** [gbɔ̀glɪ]̀ *v.* to assemble poorly e.g. broken-down machine **gbɔgelɛɛ, gbɔgelɔ, gbɔgelɔ, gbɔgelebɔ, gbɔgelaa**


# **gy**


**gyaga** [dzàgà] *adj.* useless


an axe on the neck **gyerɛɛ, gyerɛ, gyerɛ, gyerebɛ, gyeraa, gyerebɛ**

**gyere** [dzɪrɪ̀ ]̀ *v.* to pierce through to the other side **gyerɛɛ, gyerɛ, gyerɛ, gyerebɛ, gyeraa, gyerebɛ**


**Gyerɛbaa** [dzɪrɛ̀ ̀bàá] *n.* Jirapa (the main town in Central Dagao)


**gyɛlzizeɛ** [dzɛ̀lzìzɪɛ̀ ]́ *n.* yolk *pl:* **gyɛlzeere** *2pl:* **gyɛlzeerɛɛ**


**gyuuni** [dzùùnì] *n.* vulture *pl:* **gyuu- mo** *2pl:* **gyuunee**

## **h**


**hale** [hálɪ]̀ *v.* to smell strongly and unpleasantly, to reek **halɛɛ, hala, halla, haleba, halaa, haleba**


**heremm** [hérèmm] *adj.* very tight


#### iini

## **i**


## **k**


### **kãaburee**


gaba) **•** *Ba iri la kparoo ko a bie ka o deɛ kaare gaba.* A shirt was given to the boy and he left at once. **kaarɛɛ, kaara, kaara, kaareba, kaaraa, kaareba**


kage

**kage** [kágɪ]́ *adv.* stay intently

**kagelaŋ** [kàglàŋ] *adv.* large and long


**kakumo** [kǎkúmò] *n.* donkey *pl:* **kakunni** *2pl:* **kakunnee**

**kakpennɛ** [kákpɪnnɛ ́ ̀] *n.* untidy millet *2pl:* **kakpennɛɛ**


**kalekale** [kákál] *adv.* foul-smelling


**kama** [kàmà] *adj.* cut sharply


**kansele** [kánsɪl]̀ *n.* council *pl:* **kanselɛ** *2pl:* **kanselɛɛ**

**kansɛ** [kánsɛ]́ *n.* cakes *pl:* **kansɛre** *2pl:* **kansɛrɛɛ** *Var.* **sɛnsɛre, sensɛ**


eats fruits of trees *pl:* **kaŋkandori, kaŋkandorri, kaŋkandoree** *Var.* **kaŋkandobaa/kaŋkandoraa**


**koɔraa** [kʊ́ɔ́ràà] *n.* farmer *pl:* **koɔrebɔ**

**koɔre** [kʊ̀ɔ̀rɪ]̀ *v.* to sell **koɔrɛɛ, koɔrɔ, koɔrɔ, koɔreba, koɔraa, koɔreba**

**koɔre** [kʊ̀ɔ̀rɪ]̀ *v.* to scrape, to scratch **koɔrɛɛ, koɔrɔ, koɔrɔ, koɔreba, koɔraa, koɔreba**

**koɔre** [kʊ́ɔ́rɪ]́ *v.* to tap **koɔrɛɛ, koɔrɔ, koɔrɔ, koɔreba, koɔraa, koɔreba**

**koɔre** [kʊ̀ɔ́rɪ]̀ *n.* group of stars; galaxy *sg:* **koɔroo** *pl:* **koɔrɛɛ**

**koɔre** [kʊ́ɔ́rɪ]̀ *n.* gourd *pl:* **kɔɛ** *2pl:* **kɔrɛɛ**

**koɔre** [kʊ́ɔ́rɪ]̀ *n.* residue of final beer *2pl:* **koɔrɛɛ**

**kopeɛ** [kòpɪɛ́ ]́ *n.* ground immediately surrounding the stage of the corpse *pl:* **kopeere** *2pl:* **kopeerɛɛ**

**ko-pɔge** [kò-pɔ́gɪ]́ *n.* widow *pl:* **kopɔgeba** *2pl:* **ko-pɔgrɛɛ**

**ko-puoraa** [kò-pùòràá] *n.* belated condolence (usually from someone who misses a funeral)

**koraa** [kòràá] *n.* village; bush settlement *pl:* **korri** *2pl:* **korree**

**kore** [kʊ̀rɪ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to be old (not young) **(2)** to be old (not new) **korɛɛ, kora, kora, koreba, koraa, koreba**

**kore** [kʊ́rɪ]́ *adj.* old *pl:* **kora** *2pl:* **korɛɛ**

**korekore** [kʊ̀rɪkʊ̀ ́rɪ]́ *v.* to break into bits and pieces (grass) **korkorɛɛ, korekora, korekora, korkoreba, korkoraa**

**korekore** [kʊ̀rɪkʊ̀ ̀rɪ]̀ *adv.* many, in great numbers

**koremaŋ** [kʊ̀rɪmàŋ] ̀ *adj.* unkempt *Var.* **koremɔŋ**

**korepere** [kʊ́rɪpɪ ́ rɪ́ ]́ *n.* a type of monkey with thick fur *pl:* **korepeɛ** *2pl:* **koreperɛɛ**

**korewayiri** [kʊ̀rɪwàyírí] ̀ *n.* one who has has spent all their youth outside their original homeland

**kori** [kòrì] *v.* to embrace, to hug **koree, koro, koro, koro, koraa, koro**


**kori** [kórí] *adv.* the manner of a sound from hitting a hard surface

**korimo** [kòrímò] *n.* a type of lizard believed to be poisonous *pl:* **korri** *2pl:* **korree**

**koringyoŋ** [kóríndzóŋ] *n.* violin; harp *pl:* **koringyonni** *2pl:* **koringyonnee**

**koro** [kòró] *n.* pot for storing TZ (thick paste made from flour) *pl:* **korri** *2pl:* **koree/korree**

**korodie** [kòródìé] *n.* kitchen *pl:* **koroderi** *2pl:* **koroderee/korodrree**

**korombo** [kórómbò] *adv.* to empty totally, to finish with completely

**koroŋ** [kʊ́rʊ́ŋ] *adj.* a long time ago

**koroso** [kórósó] *adv.* lean and dry **•** *A balee ba dire lɛnso ka o waa a koroso lɛ.* The puppy does not eat well and that is why it is so lean and bony.


port (pillow) **(3)** to be lean **kɔgɛɛ, kɔgrɔ, kɔgrɔ, kɔgreba, kɔgraa**


**kɔnnimie** *2pl:* **kɔnnimiiree** *Var.* **bulnimiri**

**kɔnnoŋ** [kɔ́nnʊ́ŋ] *n.* the condition of having leprosy *Var.* **kɔnnoo**


**kɔnnyuuri** [kɔ́nɲúúrí] *n.* potable water, water meant for drinking


**kɔnsaaloŋ** [kɔ́nsáálʊ́ŋ] *n.* plain fluid from a swelling (may be mixed with blood) *2pl:* **kɔnsaalɛɛ**

**kɔnsaane** [kɔ̌nsáánɪ]́ *n.* water with mashed porridge *2pl:* **kɔnsaanɛɛ**

**kɔnso** [kɔ̀nsò] *n.* the act of bathing *2pl:* **kɔnsoree**


**kɔnsuoro** [kɔ̀nsúóró] *n.* one who is bathing *pl:* **kɔnsuoribo** *2pl:* **kɔnsuoribee**

**kɔntere** [kɔ́ntɪr]́ *n.* cheek *pl:* **kɔnteɛ** *2pl:* **kɔnteerɛɛ**

**kɔntɛtɛgere** [kɔ̀ntɛtɛ́ ̀grɪ]́ *n.* puddles (plural noun) *pl:* **kɔntɛtɛgerɛɛ**


*2pl:* **kɔntɔn-iribee** *Var.* **kɔntɔŋ-ire**



**kuori** [kùórí] *n.* funeral *pl:* **koe** *2pl:* **koree**


**kuri** [kúrí] *n.* **(1)** metal **(2)** iron *sg:* **kuruu** *pl:* **kurri** *2pl:* **kuree**

**kuri** [kùrì] *v.* to forge, to shape metal **kuree, kuro, kuro, kuribo, kuraa, kuribo**


underwear *pl:* **kuriyolli** *2pl:* **kuriyolee**


# **kp**


from the bottom of a container of liquid **kuuree, kuuro, kuuro, kuuribo, kuuraa**


*2pl:* **kpaarɛɛ**


together **kpaarɛɛ, kpaara, kpaara, kpaareba, kpaaraa, kpaareba**


used with ŋmɛ) **•** *Ba ŋmɛ la kpaŋkpire te le dɔgele taa.* They raced neck and neck and fell over each other. *pl:* **kpaŋkpirri** *2pl:* **kpaŋkpiree/kpaŋkpirree**


**kpegiruu** [kpégrúú] *n.* a type of dance

**kpekpe** [kpɪkpɪ ́ ]́ *n.* pair of scissors *pl:* **kpekpere** *2pl:* **kpekperɛɛ**


**kpenne** [kpɪnnɪ ́ ]̀ *v.* to break off bits of the tip (of a fire log) **kpennɛɛ,** **kpennɛ, kpennɛ, kpenemɛ, kpennaa, kpenemɛ**

**kpenne** [kpɪnnɪ ́ ]̀ *n.* ancestor *pl:* **kpemɛ** *2pl:* **kpennɛɛ**

**kpeŋkpegiri** [kpéŋkpégrí] *n.* highest point (xylophone sound) *pl:* **kpeŋkpege** *2pl:* **kpeŋkpegiree**

**kpeŋkperɛŋ** [kpɪŋkpɪ ́ rɛ́ ŋ]́ *adv.* smallish but strong (short person)

**kperaa** [kpɪráà] ́ *n.* disease of the hip *pl:* **kperre**

**kperaa** [kpɪràà] ̀ *adv.* exposed, seen clearly

**kpere** [kpɪrɪ̀ ]̀ *v.* to be stunted in growth or development **kperɛɛ, kperɛ, kperɛ, kperebɛ, kperaa**

**kpere** [kpɪrɪ́ ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to break off an attached bit from the main body **(2)** to sneeze **kperɛɛ, kperɛ, kperɛ, kperebɛ, kperaa**

**kpere** [kpɪrɪ́ ]́ *v.* to litter **kperɛɛ, kperɛ, kperɛ, kperebɛ, kperaa**

**kperefene** [kpɪrɪ́ fɪ́ nɪ ́ ]́ *adj.* muscular and stocky

**kperekpere** [kpɪrɪ̀ kpɪ ̀ rɪ́ ]́ *v.* to struggle **kperekperɛɛ, kperekperɛ, kperekperɛ, kperekperebɛ, kperekperaa**

**kperekpere** [kpɪrɪ̀ kpɪ ̀ rɪ̀ ]̀ *adv.* rough, forceful **•** *O bie ŋa waa la kperekpere zuo, o ŋmare la a kyaanaa.* This child is too rough; he will break the mirror.

**kperemene** [kpɪrìmɪ ̀ nɪ ̀ ]̀ *adj.* all over (fruits on a tree or scratches on the body) **•** *A maŋgo wɔŋe, ɛ* *la kperemenee lɛ.* The mango tree has borne a lot of fruit. *Var.* **kpurimunu**


**kperi** [kpérí] *v.* to chop (meat, tree branches) **kperee, kpere, kpere, kperibee, kperaa**

**kperime** [kpérímé] *n.* type of food (full of chopped meat) *2pl:* **kperimee**

**kperiwere** [kpéríwéré] *adv.* few, not much

**kpɛ** [kpɛ̀] *v.* **(1)** to enter **(2)** to dwell in, to inhabit **(3)** to gain fertility (farmland) **(4)** to fit (dress) **(5)** to be well attended **(6)** to feel hurt **(7)** to come around (of the a season) **kpɛɛ, kpeɛrɛ, kpeɛrɛ, kpeɛrebɛ, kpeɛraa kpɛ bire** to struggle, to wrestle, to contend

**kpɛ nyuo** to seek protection from

**kpɛde** [kpɛdɪ ́ ]́ *n.* ownership (wealth)

**kpɛɛ** [kpɛɛ́ ̀] *n.* malt *2pl:* **kpɛɛrɛɛ**

**kpɛgelaa** [kpɛgláá] ́ *n.* **(1)** supporting object (for a boiling pot on a hearth.) **(2)** attachment *pl:* **kpɛgele** *2pl:* **kpɛgelɛɛ**

**kpɛgele** [kpɛ̀glɪ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to place by the side (provide support for a cooking pot on the hearth) **(2)** to

adjoin **kpɛgelɛɛ, kpɛgelɛ, kpɛgelɛ, kpɛgelebɛ, kpɛgelaa**


to spoil (rotten eggs) **kpolee, kpolo, kpolo, kpolibo, kpolaa**


**kpontoli** [kpóntólí] *n.* topknot *Var.* **kpantoli**

**kpoŋi** [kpôŋ] *adj.* big, large, great *pl:* **kponni** *2pl:* **kponnee**


**kpore** [kpʊ̀rɪ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to crack one's knuckles **(2)** to seal completely (hole) **kporɛɛ, kpora, kporɔ, kporeba, kporaa**

**kpore** [kpʊ́rɪ]́ *n.*snuffbox (small container for snuff) *pl:* **kporɛɛ**

**kpore** [kpʊ́rɪ]́ *n.* lump (on wood) *pl:* **kporɛɛ** *2pl:* **kporrɛɛ**

**kpori** [kpórì] *v.* to empty **•** *O kpori la o woɔ libie zaa da ne yiri.* He emptied his purse to buy the house. **kporee, kporo, kporo, kporibo, kporaa**


**l**

**la** [lá] *part.* focus particle **•** *Ona la na gaa.* S/he is the one who will go.


la

**laareba, laaraa, laareba**


**laare** [lààrɪ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to spread all over **•** *Saa mie la ka kõɔ laare a bombulo zaa.* The rain has caused a near flooding of all the crops. **(2)** to move a finger gently over **•** *A dɔɔta de la tẽẽ kãã mine laare ne a bie nimie.* The doctor applied some creamy medicine to the child's eyes. **laarɛɛ, laara, laara, laareba, laaraa**

**laare** [lààrɪ]̀ *v.* to assemble; to bring together **laarɛɛ, laara, laara, laareba, laaraa**


**ladiraa** [ládìráà] *n.* sharp axe *pl:* **ladirri** *2pl:* **ladiree**


**lagara** [lágàrà] *n.* a type of creeping grass *sg:* **lagaroo** *pl:* **lagarre** *2pl:* **lagarɛɛ**


**leɛ** [lɪɛ̀ ̀] *v.* **(1)** to return, to go back

**leerebɛ, leeraa**

**(2)** to transfer to a different container **(3)** to change to something different e.g. behaviour **leɛɛ, leɛrɛ, leɛrɛ, leɛrebɛ, leɛraa, leɛrebɛ**


*ka bonyuo kpɛ leɛre o zu.* As one of the football players was injured they brought in another player to substitute him.

	- **leŋi miri** to commit suicide **leŋee miri, lene miri, mi-lene**

**leŋi woɔ** to pack bags **leŋee woɔ, lene woɔ, wo-lene**


crossed **lerɛɛ, lerɛ, lerɛ, lerebɛ, leraa**


**ligiligi** [ligiligi] *adj.* silent


**limbo** [límbò] *n.* **(1)** a transit place to heaven **(2)** a state of confusion *pl:* **limbori** *2pl:* **limboree**


**logɛɛ** [lʊ̀gɛ̀ɛ̀] *adj.* powdery


**logi** [lógì] *n.* rest stop, encampment

**•** *Moɔre da maŋ ŋmɛ logi Kaleo*

*poɔ kyɛ gaa kɔmpare.* The Mossi used to camp at Kaleo on their way to southern Ghana. *pl:* **logiri** *2pl:* **logiree**


**logi** [lógí] *adj.* deep *Var.* **logoko**


**logoko** [lògòkò] *adv.* deep set and

large **•** *A dɔɔ nimie logoko.* The man's eyes are deep set.


**lõilõi** [lṍĩlṍĩ ́ ]́ *adv.* bright red

**lomm** [lʊ̀mm] *adv.* round and big

**lomm** [lòmm] *adv.* balloon-like


loɔ

	- **•** *A diibu noma la ka a bie di tege*

*te lori o zaa.* The food was palatable and the child ate and became very full.


**lɔlɔraa** [lɔ̀lɔ̀ráà] *n.* calf (part of leg) *pl:* **lɔlɔrre** *2pl:* **lɔlɔrɛɛ**


*ŋmaaŋa lɔnne la a teɛ ulli zaa kyɛ baŋ sigi.* The monkey climbed through all the branches of the tree before coming down. **lɔŋɛɛ, lɔnnɔ, lɔnnɔ, lɔnema, lɔnnaa, lɔnema** *Var.* **loɔre**


**lɔɔ baare** to throw away, to get rid of, to discard

**lɔɔbiri** [lɔ́ɔ́bírí] *n.* a charm believed to be mobile and have destructive powers *pl:* **lɔɔbie** *2pl:* **lɔɔbiiree**


with artistry. **luree, luro, luro, luribo, luraa**


#### ma

## **m**


stances) **•** *O ma naŋ da kpi o deɛ kono la nentaŋ maaa.* When her mother died, she was shedding tears uncontrolably. **(2)** slimy


*zaa maŋ e la maaroŋ lɛ.* When it rains, the whole place becomes wet.


**magaka** [màgakà] *adv.* deep red


*yeli ka fo gaa sakuuri ka fo zagere fomeŋɛ ka male.* If your father sends you to school and you refuse you only punish yourself. **malɛɛ, malla, malla, maleba, malaa, maleba**

	- **•** *Kookoolaa ka o manne ne a*

*kyi.* They used a measuring bowl to measure the millet. **•** *Ba de la kɛkɛre manne ne a dendɔre wogiruŋ.* They used a stalk to measure the height of the door. **(2)** to compare **•** *Sakubie koŋ tõɔ de omeŋɛ te manne ne karema.* A pupil cannot compare herself to a teacher. **mannɛɛ, manna, manna, manema, mannaa**


### **tarɛɛ**


twisted


198

mere

> rowed the river valley and broadcast the rice. **merɛɛ, merɛ, merɛ, merebɛ, meraa, merebɛ**


fused to bother. **meree, mere, mere, meribe, meraa**


**mɛle** [mɛlɪ́ ]̀ *n.* medal *pl:* **mɛlɛ** *2pl:* **mɛllɛɛ**


*ka o mii.* The soldier shouted at the woman and she became fightened. **(3)** to push, to shake e.g. the branch of a tree to knock down fruits **•** *A pɔge do mii la a taŋaa ko o bibiiri ka ba di.* The woman climbed and shook the shea nut tree to knock down the fruits for her children. **miie, miine, miine, miinime, miinaa, -** *Var.* **miiu**


**miire, miiribe, miiraa**


**milikolo** [mìlìkòlò] *adj.* twisted


**mine** [mìné] *adj.* **(1)** some, a certain number **•** *A boore mine zoe la.* Some of the goats have escaped. **(2)** pl. morpheme (human type only) e.g. mamine (mothers) or ymine (siblings) **•** *Mamine la maŋ ko biiri bere ka ba ɛnne.* Mothers provide their breasts to babies to suck.

**minimini** [mìnìmìnì] *adv.* streaming continuously e.g. tears **•** *A bie poɔ beɛrɛ la ka o kono minimini lɛ.* The child has a stomach ache and he is sheding tears uncontrollably.


the pito is gone. **moorɛɛ, moorɔ, moorɔ, mooreba, mooraa moore tere** to sympathise with


**(2)** to try hard **•** *Ka fooŋ ba mɔ fo koŋ tõɔ̃ a teɛ do.* If you don't try hard, you can't climb the tree. **mɔɛ, moɔrɔ, moɔrɔ, moɔreba, moɔraa**


mɔll


**mui** [mùí] *n.* rice *2pl:* **muunee**


child's hand cannot get to the bottom of the pot. **(2)** under **•** *A saama zeŋe la a maŋgo teɛ muni.* The strangers are sitting under the mango tree.


## **n**

**N** [ɪn] ̀ *pron.* I (1st person singular weak form nominative) **•** *N na gaa la daa.* I will go to the market. **(1)** my (1st person singular possessive)

**•** *N libie baarɛɛ la.* My money is gone.


Naa

pital.


**naasarre** *2pl:* **naasarrɛɛ** *Var.* **naasarelee**


**naŋkoɔse** [nàŋkʊ̀ɔ̀sɪ]́ *n.* butcher *pl:* **naŋkoɔsere** *2pl:* **naŋkoɔserɛɛ**

**naŋkpaana** [nǎŋkpááná] *n.* hunter *pl:* **naŋkpaama/naŋkpaane** *2pl:* **naŋkpaanɛɛ**

**naŋmane** [nàŋmánɪ]́ *n.* pigeon *pl:* **naŋmama** *2pl:* **naŋmannɛɛ**

**napoloŋ** [nàpʊ̀lʊ́ŋ] *n.* calf (part of the leg) *pl:* **napolle** *2pl:* **napollɛɛ**

**Napɔge** [nàpɔ́gɪ]́ *n.* name traditionally given to a younger female twin *pl:* **napɔgeba** *2pl:* **napɔgebɛɛ naraa** [nàràà] *adv.* large


**neɛ** [nɪɛ́ ̀] *v.* **(1)** to step on **•** *N ba baŋ kyɛ neɛ o gbɛre kyɛ ka o suuri iri.* I stepped on her foot unintentionally, but she was angry. **(2)** to grind **•** *A tẽe-erɛ neɛ la a tẽe eŋ kõɔ poɔ ko a baala.* The herbal doctor ground the medicine and mixed it with water for the patient. **neɛɛ, neɛrɛ, neɛrɛ, neɛrebɛ, neɛraa, neɛrebɛ**


eryone **•** *Ba yeli ka neɛzaa gaa a kpaaroŋ.* It has been said that every person should attend the meeting.


**nembaal-zoro** [nɪmbààl-zóró] ́ *n.* merciful person *pl:* **nembaalzoribo** *2pl:* **nembaal-zoribee**


person *pl:* **nemboma** *2pl:* **nembonnɛɛ**


**nemboore** [nɪmbʊ ́ ́ʊ́rɪ]́ *n.* type of person **•** *Maa ba baŋ nemboore na zaa naŋ la o.* I don't know what type of person she is. *pl:* **nemboorɔ**


**nempaalaa** [nímpááláá] *n.* new person *pl:* **nempaalba** *2pl:* **nempaalɛɛ**

**nempelaa** [nɪmpɪ ́ làá] ̀ *n.* **(1)** Caucasian; white person **(2)** simple person, straightforward person *pl:* **nempeɛle** *2pl:* **nempeɛlɛɛ**

**nempɔgeraa** [nɪmpɔ ́ ̀gɪráà] ̀ *n.* prisoner *pl:* **nempɔgere** *2pl:* **nempɔgerɛɛ**

**nempɔgere-die** [nɪmpɔ ́ ̀gɪrdìé] ̀ *n.* prison *pl:* **nempɔgere-deri** *2pl:* **nempɔgere-deree**


*dɔgeroŋ poɔ a ŋa a bie yi a sakuuriŋ.* But for the headmaster giving a human face to the boy's punishment the boy would have been out of school. **(3)** personification (literature)


**neŋ-iraa** [nɪŋ-íráà] ́ *n.* chosen person *pl:* **neŋ-irri** *2pl:* **neŋ-irree**


*paalaa.* My father has the money but his stinginess would not allow him to buy a new TV. **(3)** covetousness **•** *A bie ŋa taa la nimiri, o maŋ nyɛ la o tɔ zaa bone boɔrɔ o.* This child is covetous; he wants anything that another child has. *sg:* **nimiruu** *pl:* **nimie** *2pl:* **nimiiree**


**nimitoloŋ** [nímítʊ́lʊ́ŋ] *n.* haste

**nimitɔɔre** [nímítɔ́ɔ́rɪ]́ *post.* **(1)** ahead, in front of **•** *Ka fooŋ mɔnɔ lɔɔre a seŋ ka fo kaara nimitɔɔre.* If you drive you must look ahead. **(2)** forward (distance, direction) **•** *O yeli ka N gaa nimitɔɔre fẽẽ kyɛ leɛ tu*

*nudoloŋ.* She directed that I should go ahead a little and turn right.


**niŋe sógɔ́ –in front, before, niŋesogre, niŋesogrɛɛ** in front, before


*zie zaa.* The story was interesting and so the children laughed their heads off. *Var.* **noma**


**nɔdaa** [nɔ́dáá] *n.* rooster *pl:* **nɔdaare** *2pl:* **nɔdaarɛɛ** *Var.* **nɔraa (pl.)**


**nɔdalee** [nɔ̀dàléé] *n.* cockerel *pl:* **nɔdabilii** *2pl:* **nɔdabillee nɔdo** [nɔ́dó] *n.* food


her left hand, it was empty. *pl:* **nufoe** *2pl:* **nuforee**

**nufõɔo** [núfʊ̃ ́ɔ̃ ́ʊ̃ ́] *n.* ability to act fast with the hand *pl:* **nufoɔne** *2pl:* **nufoɔnɛɛ**

**nugɔɔ** [núgɔ̀ɔ̀] *n.* left hand *pl:* **nugɔɔre** *2pl:* **nugɔɔrɛɛ** *Var.* **gɔɔ**

**nugɔɔ** [núgɔ̀ɔ̀] *post.* towards the left direction *Var.* **gɔɔ**

**nugunno** [núgúnnó] *n.* very poor, helpless *2pl:* **nugunnee**

**nukuni** [núkúní] *n.* fist *pl:* **nukumo** *2pl:* **nukunee**

**nukuoŋaa** [núkúóŋáá] *n.* dry hand *pl:* **nukuoni** *2pl:* **nukuonee**

**nukpara** [núkpárá] *n.* both hands put together *pl:* **nukparre** *2pl:* **nukparrɛɛ**

**nulaama** [núláámá] *n.* idle hands

**nulaayɛlɛ** [núlàáyɛlɛ] ́ *n.* work of idle hands

**nuperaa** [núpɪràà] ́ *n.* finger snap *pl:* **nuperre** *2pl:* **nuperrɛɛ**

**nupoɔ** [núpʊ́ɔ́] *n.* palm (of hand) *pl:* **nupoore** *2pl:* **nupoorɛɛ**

**nupuori** [núpúórì] *n.* back of the hand *pl:* **nupoe** *2pl:* **nuporee**

**nusampane** [núsámpánɪ]́ *n.* palm (of hand) *pl:* **nusampama** *2pl:* **nusampanɛɛ**

**nusugili** [núsúgílí] *n.* wrist *pl:* **nusugilo** *2pl:* **nusugilee**

**nutaa** [nútàà] *n.* wealthiness

**nutale** [nútálɪ]̀ *n.* palm (of hand) *pl:* **nutala** *2pl:* **nutalɛɛ**

**nutara** [nútárá] *n.* wealthy person *pl:* **nutareba** *2pl:* **nutarebɛɛ**

**nutẽɛ** [nútɪ̃ɛ́ ̃]́ *n.* the act of giving, benevolence

**nuu** [núú] *adj.* five *pl:* **nuuri** *2pl:* **nuuree**

**nuulee** [núúléé] *n.* bird *pl:* **nuuli**

**nuuleemakõɔ** [núúléémákʊ̃ ̀ɔ̃ ̀] *n.* a type of small creeping plant *pl:* **nuuleemakoɔnɛɛ** *Var.* **nuuleemakõɔkõɔ**

**nuuleemakõɔkõɔ** [núúléémákʊ̃ ́ɔ̃ ́kʊ̃ ́ɔ̃ ́] *n.* a type of plant with medicinal properties

**nuulikɔɔloŋ** [nùúlìkɔ́ɔ́lʊ́ŋ] *n.* feather *pl:* **nuulikɔɔlo**

**nuulikyoo** [nùúlìʧóò] *n.* bird nest *pl:* **nuulikyoori** *2pl:* **nuulikyooree**

**nuuliparezoore** [núúlìpárɪzʊ̀ ́ʊ́rɪn]́ *n.* pintailed bird *pl:* **nuuliparezoɛ** *2pl:* **nuuliparezoorɛɛ**

**nuulitige** [núùlitígé] *n.* flock (of birds) – singular or plural agreement *2pl:* **nuulitigree**

**nuwogi** [núwógí] *n.* **(1)** lightfingeredness **(2)** thief *pl:* **nuwogiri** *2pl:* **nuwogiree**

**nuyoɔre** [núyʊ̀ɔ̀rɪ]̀ *n.*something that causes boredom, inactivity

**nu-yuo** [nú-yùò] *n.* generosity *pl:* **nu-yuori** *2pl:* **nu-yuoree**

**nuzagele-pie** [núzáglɪ-píé] ̀ *n.* empty handedness

**nuzɛgere** [núzɛgrɪ ́ ]́ *n.* handshake

#### nyaa

# **ny**

**nyaa** [ɲáà] *n.* chest *pl:* **nyaɛ** *2pl:* **nyaane/nyaanɛɛ**


**nyaatafale** [ɲáátáfálɪ]́ *n.* emptiness

**nyabipeɛ** [ɲábìpɪɛ́ ]́ *n.* ribcage *pl:* **nyabipɛre** *2pl:* **nyabipɛrɛɛ**


If you sweat on top of millet chaff your body is normally itchy.


**nyeɛ** [ɲɪɛ̀ ]́ *n.* snot *2pl:* **nyeɛnɛɛ**


*a gbɛre poɔ kyɛ o sãa la kperaa l.ɛ* The thorn has pierced the foot, but it can be seen clearly.


**nyɛrebɛ, nyɛraa nyɛ eebo** succeed **nyɛ ferɛ** to suffer **nyɛ kparɛɛ** to suffer **nyɛ pare** to lie down helplessly, to crumple

**nyɛ yuori** get fame, (be) powerful

**nyɛ zɛ** to suffer greatly


**nyɛgɛkɛ** [ɲɛgɛ́ kɛ́ ]́ *adj.* warmish


**nyɛtaa** [ɲɛtáá] ́ *v.* confer


**nyonsomm** [ɲʊ̀nsʊ̀mm] *adj.* biggish **nyonyonne** [ɲʊ́nyʊ́nnɪ]̀ *n.* nausea **nyonyonne** [ɲʊ́nyʊ́nnɪ]̀ *n.* dirt


**nyɔge noɔre** to be surprised

**nyɔge** [ɲɔ́gɪ]̀ *v.* to choke **•** *A baa vɔlɔ la a nɛne yaga lɛ ka a te nyɔge o.* The dog swallowed the meat so fast that the meat choked it. **nyɔgɛɛ, nyɔgrɔ, nyɔgrɔ, nyɔgreba, nyɔgraa, nyɔgreba**


**nyuweɛlɛɛ** *Var.* **waweɛlɛ nyuzɛle** [ɲùzɛ̀lɪ]́ *n.* umbilical cord

# **ŋ**

**ŋa** [ŋá] *pron.* this (third person singular demonstrative) **•** *A dɔɔ ŋa zaameŋ wa la kyɛ.* This man came here yesterday.

## *sg:* **nyuzɛloo** *pl:* **nyuzɛlɛ** *2pl:* **nyuzɛlɛɛ/nyuzɛllɛɛ**

**ŋa** [ŋá] *adv.* similar to, like **•** *A dɔɔ waa ŋa sogya na.* The man is like a soldier.

## **ŋm**

**ŋma** [ŋmá] *v.* to conquer, to plunder **ŋmaɛ, ŋmaara, ŋmaara, ŋmaareba, ŋmaaraa**

**ŋmaa** [ŋmàà] *v.* to cut **•** *Nɛne la ka a pɔge da ŋmaara ka a soɔ ŋmaa o nubiri.* The woman was cutting meat when the knife cut her finger. **ŋmaarɛɛ, ŋmaara**

**ŋmaa vooroŋ** to stop breathing, to die

**ŋmaa** [ŋmàà] *v.* to write **•** *Ayuo ŋmaa la sɛnsɛŋe gane gaa ko o sɛne.* Ayuo has written a love letter to her boyfriend. **ŋmaarɛɛ, ŋmaara**

**ŋmaa** [ŋmàà] *v.* **(1)** to cross (river) **•** *A mane paalɛɛ la ka ba maŋ de gbori ŋmaa ne.* The river is flooded and they are using a boat to cross it. **(2)** to go across to meet **•** *Polisiri ŋmaa la a sori nyɔgere a nannyigiri.* The police crossed the road and arrested the thieves. **ŋmaarɛɛ, ŋmaara**


**ŋmaabini** [ŋmàábíní] *n.* a type of plant *pl:* **ŋmaabinee**


ties **(2)** a type of small monkey *pl:* **ŋmaakyerre** *2pl:* **ŋmaakyerɛɛ**


roasting) **ŋmeɛɛ, ŋmeɛnɛ, ŋmeɛnɛ, ŋmeɛnemɛ, ŋmenaa, -** *Var.* **ŋmeɛ**


*gaŋ be.* The rabbit digs a warren where it sleeps. **(2)** to settle down in one place **•** *A pɔlebile nyɛ la n yɔɔpuulee a deɛ ŋmɛ te yiriŋ.* The young man saw my sister and has settled down in our house.

**ŋmɛ sane (1)** to make a net loss **•** *Ka fooŋ da kommie sidi kɔɔ kyɛ te koɔre sidi lezaɛ anaare fo ŋmɛ la sane sidi lezare.* If you buy tomatoes for one hundred cedis and sell them for eighty cedis, you have made a loss of twenty cedis. **(2)** to spend money on something that is not of much worth to oneself

**•** *Ka kuoriŋ ko fo yiriŋ fo maŋ ŋmɛ la sane.* When there is a funeral in your house you normally spend a lot.

**ŋmɛgele** [ŋmɛ̀gɪlɪ̀ ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to flatten **•** *Kuuri ka o de tɔ ne a koŋkoŋ te ŋmɛgele o bare.* She hit the tin with a stone until she flattened it out. **(2)** to suffer from hunger **•** *Zaameŋ zaa ba ba maale diibu ka a bibiiri deɛ ŋmɛgelɛ.* They have cooked food yesterday and the children are suffering from hunger. **ŋmɛglɛɛ, ŋmɛglɛ, ŋmɛglɛ, ŋmɛglebɛ, ŋmɛglaa, ŋmɛglebɛ**


been able to squeeze some gum out of this tree. **ŋmɛgrɛɛ, ŋmɛgrɛ, ŋmɛgrɛ, ŋmɛgrebɛ, ŋmɛgraa**


## **o**


**onaŋ** [ʊ́náŋ] *pron.* that one (3rd person demonstrative nonhuman)

**onɔ** [ʊ́nɔ́] *pron.* s/he, it (3rd person singular strong form) **•** *Onɔ la na* **ŋmoonema, ŋmoonaa, ŋmoonema**


*yi.* S/he is the one that will go out. *Var.* **ona/one**


to harvest vegetables **(3)** to harvest dawdaw fruits or leaves **ɔŋɛɛ, ɔnnɔ, ɔnnɔ, ɔnema, ɔnnaa, ɔnnema**


# **p**


**paalaa** [pááláá] *adj.* new *pl:* **paale** *2pl:* **paalɛɛ**

**paalaa** [pááláá] *n.* **(1)** raised dais, platform **(2)** stage for laying a corpse in state *pl:* **paale** *2pl:* **paalɛɛ**

**paalaa** [pààláà] *n.* space in between four mounds *pl:* **paale** *2pl:* **paalɛɛ**

**paale** [pààlɪ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to fill **(2)** to add **paalɛɛ, paala, paala, paaleba**

**paalonwuluugane** [páálʊ́nwúlúúgánɪ]̀ *n.* map *pl:* **paalonwuluugama**

**paaloŋ** [páálʊ́ŋ] *n.* area of jurisdiction (country, district, kingdom)

**paaloŋ** [páálʊ́ŋ] *adj.* first, fresh instance

**paanaa** [pàànáá] *n.* ground cricket *pl:* **paane** *2pl:* **paanɛɛ** *Var.* **paaŋaa**

**paane** [pàànɪ]̀ *v.* to blame **paanɛɛ, paana, paana, paanema, paanaa**

**paantakyeraa** [pààntáʧɪráá] ́ *n.* wild flying cricket *pl:* **paantakyerre**

**paapaa** [páápàà] *n.* pope *pl:* **paapaamine/paapaare** *2pl:* **paapaarɛɛ**

**pãapere** [pã̀ã̀pɪrɪ̀ ]̀ *n.* paper-like spider egg sac *pl:* **pãapẽɛ** *2pl:* **pãapeerɛɛ**

**paare** [páárɪ]̀ *n.* vagina, vulva *pl:* **paɛ** *2pl:* **pɛɛrɛɛ**

**paare** [pààrɪ]̀ *v.* to scrape e.g. roasted yam **paarɛɛ, paara, paara, paareba, paaraa**

**paare** [pààrɪ]̀ *v.* to weed e.g. grass **paarɛɛ, paara, paara, paareba, paaraa**

**paare** [páárɪ]̀ *v.* to pass (a test) **paarɛɛ, paara, paara, paareba, paaraa**

**paasepɔɔto** [páásɪpɔ́ ́ɔ́tʊ̀] *n.* passport *pl:* **paasepɔɔtere** *2pl:* **paasepɔɔterɛɛ**

**pãatakyeraa** [pã́ã́táʧɪráá] ́ *n.* a type of cricket *pl:* **pãatakyerre** *2pl:* **pãatakyerɛɛ**

**paate** [páátɪ]̀ *interj.* expression of surprise astonishment e.g. one found in a challenging situation

**paawa** [pááwà] *n.* power, electric light *pl:* **paaware** *2pl:* **paawarɛɛ**

**paawerɛ** [pááwɪrɛ́ ̀] *n.* powder *pl:* **paawerre** *2pl:* **paawerɛɛ/paawerrɛɛ**

**pabo** [pábʊ́] *adj.* completely

**padaa** [pàdàá] *n.* wood used to make a stage for a corpse *pl:* **padaare** *2pl:* **padaarɛɛ**

**page** [págɪ]́ *v.* to hasten, to hurry **pagɛɛ, pagera, pagereba, pageraa, pagereba, pagepagera**

**pagere** [págrɪ]̀ *v.* to compete, to challenge **pagrɛɛ, pagra, pagra, pagreba, pagraa**

**pakɔɔloŋ** [pákɔ́ɔ́lʊ́ŋ] *n.* female pubic hair

**pakyoŋ** [pàʧʊ́ŋ] *n.* a large black ant with a painful sting *pl:* **pakyonne** *2pl:* **pakyonnɛɛ**

**palampiiri** [pálámpììrí] *n.* **(1)** butterfly **(2)** moth *pl:* **palampie** *2pl:* **palampiiree** *Var.* **palampigri/palimpiiri**

**palle** [pàllɪ]̀ *v.* to plait, to braid **pallɛɛ, palla, palla, paleba, pallaa**

**pamm** [pámm] *adj.* straight onto the target


**para** [párá] *n.* triangular loincloth *pl:* **parre** *2pl:* **parɛɛ**

**para** [pàrá] *v.* to walk quickly **parɛɛ, para, para, pareba, paraa**


**pegelaa** [pìgláà] *n.* row (of farm mounds) *pl:* **pegle** *2pl:* **peglɛɛ pegele** [pɪglɪ ̀ ]̀ *v.* cut across, in order to meet at a point **peglɛɛ, peglɛ, peglɛ, peglebɛ, peglaa pegele** [pɪglɪ ̀ ]̀ *adj.* crooked, twisted e.g. feet **pegerɛ** [pɪgrɛ ́ ̀] *n.* wings *sg:* **pegroo pegɛ** [pɪgɛ́ ]́ *adj.* not whole; e.g. broken piece of calabash **pegi** [pègì] *v.* to flap one's wings **pegee, pegre, pegre, pegribe, pegraa pekɔɔloŋ** [pɪkɔ́ ́ɔ́lʊ́ŋ] *n.* wool **pekpoŋi** [pɪkpôŋ] ̀ *n.* large roof *pl:* **pekponni** *2pl:* **pekponnee pekyeenɛ** [ṕʧɪɪ́nɛ́ ]́ *n.* shepherd *pl:* **pekyeemɛ** *2pl:* **pekyeenɛɛ pelaa** [pɪlàá] ́ *adj.* white *pl:* **peɛle pelaaya** [pɪlááyà] ́ *n.* pliers *pl:* **pelaayare** *2pl:* **pelaayarɛɛ pele** [pɪlɪ́ ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to split a piece from a stalk **(2)** to leave and fail to return **pelɛɛ, pellɛ, pellɛ, pelebɛ, pelaa pele** [pɪlɪ́ ]́ *v.* **(1)** to tear, to break off (splinter) **(2)** to discontinue (visits) **(3)** to continue without going back to former place **pelɛɛ, pellɛ, pellɛ, pelbɛ, pellaa**

**pelee** [pɪléè] ́ *n.* lamb *pl:* **pebilii**

**pelee** [pèléè] *n.* small basket *pl:* **pebilii** *Var.* **pɛlee**

**peleemazẽe** [pɪléèmàzɪ ́ ̃ɪ́̃]̀ *n.* a type of with pink coloured edible fruits

**pelempeleŋ** [pélémpéléŋ] *adv.* bare, empty

**pelewelee** [pɪliɪ ̀ wɪ ̀ lɪ̀ ɪ̀]̀ *adj.* plenty of things found everywhere e.g. assorted items**•** *A weɛ tomɔ deɛ waa la pelewelee lɛ.* There is plenty of work on the farm. *Var.* **pelewele**

**pelɛmpelɛŋ** [pɪlɛ̀ ̀mpɪlɛ́ ŋ]́ *adv.* all over the place, disorganised

**peli** [pélì] *n.* spirit, heart *pl:* **pele** *2pl:* **pelee**

**peli** [pél] *n.* fright

**pell** [pɪll]́ *adj.* full to capacity *Var.* **pelpel**

**pell** [péll] *adj.* rise into the air e.g. flame

**pelɔɔ** [pɪlɔ̀ ̀ɔ̀] *adv.* suddenly and quickly e.g. fish splashing in water

**pelpel** [pɪlpɪ ́ l]́ *adv.* full to the brim

**pelpele** [pìlpɪl]́ *v.* to litter with broken pieces e.g. of straw **pelpelɛɛ, pelpelɛ, pelpelɛ, pelpelebɛ, pelpelaa**

**pempeleŋ** [pémpéléŋ] *adj.* small e.g. piece of cloth

**pemperi** [pèmpèrì] *v.* to bend or place something in an oblique position **pemperee, pempere, pempere, pemperibe, pemperaa, -** *Var.* **pɛmpɛre**

**penɛne** [pɪnɛ́ nɪ ́ ]̀ *n.* mutton *pl:* **penɛmɛ** *2pl:* **penɛnnɛɛ**

**penne** [pɪnnɪ ́ ]̀ *v.* to make delicious **pennɛɛ, pennɛ, pennɛ, penemɛ, pennaa**

**penti** [péntì] *n.* paint *pl:* **pentiri** *2pl:* **pentiree**

**penyaŋaa** [pɪɲáŋàá] ́ *n.* ewe, adult female sheep *pl:* **penyaŋene/penyanne** *2pl:* **penyaŋenɛɛ/penyannɛɛ**

**peraa** [pɪráá] ́ *n.* **(1)** deliberateness **(2)** obstinacy

**peraa** [pɪráá] ́ *n.* hyperbole (literature)

**peraa** [pɪràà] ́ *n.* castanet; a pair of metal rings worn on the fingers and clicked together rhythmically *pl:* **perre** *2pl:* **perrɛɛ**

**pere** [pɪrɪ́ ]̀ *v.* push away; usually a small object with the foot

**pere** [pɪrɪ́ ]́ *n.* a loop used in making the rim of a basket *pl:* **perɛɛ**

**pere** [pɪrɪ̀ ]̀ *v.* **(1)** remove from; shell (groundnuts), unwrap (parcel), **(2)** get wounded **•** *O daare zɔ̃ɔ̃la kuriwiri te le ka o gbɛre pere.* He rode a bicycle, crashed and got his leg wounded. **perɛɛ, perɛ, perɛ, perebɛ, peraa**

**pere** [pɪrɪ́ ]̀ *v.* push away (small object), ignore **•** *Ka fooŋ ba boɔrɔ a kuuri ŋa kyɛ ta pere o bare.* Even if you don't like this stone don't push it away. **perɛɛ, perɛ, perɛ, perebɛ, peraa**

**pere** [pɪrɪ́ ]̀ *n.* sheep *pl:* **peere** *Var.* **peroo**

**perebare** [pɪrɪ́ bàrɪ ́ ]̀ *n.* outer toe of a fowl *pl:* **perebarre** *2pl:* **perebarɛɛ**

**perekara** [pɪrɪ̀ kàrà] ̀ *adj.* astride, firm and immovable **•** *A sogya yaare* *la o gbɛɛ perekara ka tɔloo zie kyebe.* The soldier stood firmly with his feet astride such that no one can pass by him.


**perɛperɛ** [pɪrɛ́ pɪ ́ rɛ́ ]́ *adj.* not stuck together e.g. well-cooked rice

**periperi** [pèrìpérí] *v.* to make an effort to overcome, to try hard

**•** *O ba taa a eebo kyɛ o meŋ aŋ peripere la.* She has not got the means, but she is also still trying hard. **periperee, peripere, peripere, periperibe, periperaa**

**peroo** [pɪrʊ́ ́ʊ́] *n.* sheep *pl:* **peere** *2pl:* **peerɛɛ** *Var.* **pere**

**pesaraa** [pɪsáráà] ́ *n.* young adult female sheep *sg:* **pesarrɛɛ** *pl:* **pesarre**

**petooŋmaa** [pɪtòòŋmáá] ́ *n.* one who will not listen to anything *pl:* **petooŋmaara** *2pl:* **petooŋmaarɛɛ**

**pezage** [pɪzàgɪ ́ ]́ *n.* sheep pen *pl:* **pezagre** *2pl:* **pezagrɛɛ**

**pɛ** [pɛ̀] *v.* to squeeze out e.g. milk from a cow **-, -, peɛrɛ, peɛrebɛ, peɛraa**

**pɛ** [pɛ̀] *v.* to open one's eyes widely **-, -, peɛrɛ, peɛrebɛ, peɛraa**


*ko te.* Today s/he open up by explaining the issues to us.


**raa**


**pĩikaraa** [pĩĩ́kàràà] ́ *n.* sharpened arrow *pl:* **pĩikarre** *2pl:* **pĩikarrɛɛ**

**piili** [píílì] *v.* to begin; to start **piilee, piile, piile, piilibe, piilaa, piilibe**

**pĩi-mɔre** [pĩĩ́-mɔ ́ ́rɪ]́ *n.* arrow shaft *pl:* **pĩi-mɔɛ** *2pl:* **pĩi-mɔrɛɛ**

**piiri** [píírì] *v.* to massage with warm water e.g. on bruises **piiree, piire, piire, piiribe, piiraa**

**piiri** [píírí] *n.* rock *pl:* **pie** *2pl:* **piiree** *Var.* **pie (Southern Dagaare dialect)**

**piiri** [pììrì] *v.* to recover a lost object by chance **-, piire, piiribe, piiraa**

**piirimpĩi** [pììrímpĩĩ́]̀ *n.* a type of lizard *pl:* **piirimpiime**

**pĩi-sabɔle** [pĩĩ́sàbɔ ́ ́l] *n.* a type of square-shaped arrow without spikes *pl:* **pĩi-sabɔlɔ** *2pl:* **pĩisabɔlɛɛ**


ing **pillee, pille, pille, pilibe, pillaa, pilibe**


**po** [pʊ̀] *v.* to pull a grass stalk off the base **poɛ, poorɔ/poora, poorɔ/poora, pooreba, pooraa**

**po** [pò] *v.* to dig for termites (to feed young chicks) **poe, puoro, puoro, puoribo, puoraa**

**po** [pò] *v.* to ooze, to flow (water) **poe, puoro, puoro, puoribo, puoraa**

**pobeɛmɛ** [pʊ̀bɪɛ́ mɛ ́ ]́ *n.* stomachache, upset stomach *2pl:* **pobeɛmɛɛ**

**pobieri** [pʊ̀bìèrí] *n.* wickedness *2pl:* **pobieree** *Var.* **powolaa**

**poboɔbo** [pʊ̀bʊ́ɔ́bʊ̀] *n.* will, desire

**pobu** [pòbú] *adv.* filled with (tears in the eyes)

**podẽo** [pʊ̀dɪ̃ʊ̀ ̃ ́] *n.* preference

**podɛgere** [pʊ̀dɛgɪ ́ rɪ́ ]̀ *n.* evil thought

**pofaa** [pʊ̀fáá] *n.* state of being evilminded *pl:* **pofaare** *2pl:* **pofaarɛɛ**

**pogaale** [pʊ̀gáálɪ]̀ *n.* prenatal care *pl:* **pogaalɛɛ**

**pogitogo** [pógítógó] *adv.* very short and small *Var.* **pogitogoo**

**pokuoŋaa** [pʊ̀kúóŋáá] *n.* sharp stomachache without diarrhoea *pl:* **pokuoni** *2pl:* **pokuonee**

**pokpaane** [pʊ̀kpàànɪ]̀ *n.* fasting *2pl:* **pokpaanɛɛ** *Var.* **pokpegri**

**pokpegiri** [pʊ̀kpégrí] *n.* closedheartedness, without an open mind, wickedness *pl:* **pokpege** *2pl:* **pokpegree** *Var.* **pokpaane**

**pokpɛlɛnkyɛ** [pʊ̀kpɛlɛ́ nʧɛ ́ ]́ *n.* the act of being potentially dangerous

**pokpɔgere** [pʊ̀kpɔ́grí] *n.* tumor in the stomach *pl:* **pokpɔgɔ** *2pl:* **pokpɔgrɛɛ**

**pokyiiri** [pʊ́ʧíírí] *n.* confession

**polee** [póléé] *n.* small farm

**polee** [pʊ̀léé] *n.* early pregnancy

**poleɛne** [pʊ́lɪɛ́ nɪ ́ ]́ *n.* female lizard *pl:* **poleɛmɛ** *2pl:* **poleɛmɛɛ**

**polepole** [pʊ́lpʊ́lɪ]́ *adj.* very tall and pointed summit (church tower)

**poli** [pólí] *v.* smear plenty of oil producing a shining effect **polee, polo, polo, polibo, polaa, polibo**

**poli** [pòlì] *adv.* flaring up abruptly (fire)

**polige** [pʊ̀lígè] *n.* the state of not being open-minded

**poll** [pʊ́ll] *adj.* small and sharp *pl:* **poll poll**

**polle** [pʊ̌llɪ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to sharpen (a point) **(2)** to take an oath **(3)** to make a promise **pollɛɛ, polla, polla, poleba, pollaa, poleba**

**polle noɔre, polle teebo** to vow

**pololo** [pʊ́lʊ́lʊ́] *adj.* pointed and sharp

**pomm** [pòmm] *adv.* bloated like a balloon

**pompoluoree** [pómpólúóréé] *n.* a type of wild tree with edible fruit *pl:* **pompoluori** *2pl:* **pompoluoree** *Var.* **polimpoluoree**

**pompoŋɔ** [pʊ́mpʊ́ŋɔ̀] *n.* a type of poisonous green-trunked tree with white nectar *pl:* **pomponne** *2pl:* **pomponnɛɛ** *Var.* **pompoŋa**


*pɔgebilii deɛnɛ la velaa zaa ka dɔɔbilii mine wa põɔ kpɛ ka a deɛne ŋmaa.* The girls were happily playing when some boys interrupted them and the play ended. **(2)** to perform a task earlier than expected **•** *A tontonema da põɔ iree la gaa o toma zie a na te de ba sanyɔɔ.* The workers left before dawn to the work place in order to receive their salaries. **põɔɛ, poɔnɔ, poɔnɔ, poɔnema, poɔnaa**


**pore** [pʊ́rɪ]̀ *v.* to buy herbal medicine **porɛɛ, porɔ, porɔ, poreba, poraa**


**po-yiraa** [pʊ̀-yíráá] *n.* miscarriage *pl:* **po-yirri** *Var.* **po-yi**

**pozagela** [pʊ́zágɪlà] ́ *n.* innocence


**pɔge-de** [pɔ̀gɪ-dɪ ́ ]́ *n.* marriage


**pɔgeseɛ** [pɔ̀gɪsɪ̀ ɛ́ ]́ *n.* a type of yam *pl:* **pɔgeseere** *2pl:* **pɔgeseerɛɛ**

**pɔgeseɛ** [pɔ̀gɪsɪ̀ ɛ́ ]́ *n.* **(1)** a woman's cloth measuring about 72 x 45 inches worn on the waist **(2)** any such size of cloth *sg:* **seerɛɛ** *pl:* **pɔgeseere** *2pl:* **pɔge**


**pɔlteɛ** [pɔ̀ltìɛ̀] *n.* frightening

**pɔmɛɛ** [pɔ̀mɛ̀ɛ̀] *adv.* fat and round

**pɔmpɔre** [pɔ̌mpɔ̀rɪ]́ *adj.* very young and immature e.g. puppy


**puli** [púlí] *n.* hind toe of a bird *pl:* **pulli** *2pl:* **pulee**

**pulli** [pùllì] *v.* to mix **•** *Ba de la bɛŋɛ pulli ne a mui.* They mixed the rice with beans. **pulee, pullo, pullo, pulibo, pullaa, pulibo**


**pumpuroŋ** [púmpúróŋ] *adv.* small,

round, and hairy e.g. tail end of a squirrel


**puoriŋ** [púòríŋ] *conj.* after


puro

> (sun) **puree, puro, puro, puribo, puraa, puribo**

**puri ŋmenaa** sunrise

**puri wale** to sweat, to perspire; to struggle, to be in a difficult situation

**puro** [púrò] *n.* a type of tree that has sour sap which is used in preparing porridge *pl:* **purri** *2pl:* **purree**

**puro** [púrò] *n.* a type of small tree squirrel *pl:* **purri** *2pl:* **purree**

**puu** [pùù] *v.* **(1)** to praise **(2)** to congratulate **puue, puuro, puuro, puuribo, puuraa**

**puulee** [púúléé] *n.* lady (typically

## **s**

**sa** [sá] *v.* to administer an enema **saɛ, saara, saara, sareba, saaraa**

**saa** [sàá] *n.* father *pl:* **saamine** *2pl:* **saarɛɛ** *Var.* **ba**

**saa** [sáá] *n.* rain *2pl:* **saarɛɛ**

**saa** [sáá] *adv.* even if; short form of saareŋ **•** *Ka fooŋ saa be gaa kyɛ fo koŋ nyɛ o.* Even if you go you won't see him/her. *Var.* **saareŋ**

**sãa** [sã́ã́] *n.* blacksmith's shop *Var.* **saaŋ**

**sãa** [sã́ã̀] *v.* to mash, to mix **•** *Kɔŋe kpɛ la a balee, sãa saabo eŋe o.* The puppy is hungry; mash some TZ for it.

**sãa** [sã́ã̀] *v.* to appear, to be visible

**sãa** [sã̀ã̀] *v.* **(1)** to spoil, to destroy, to

used with bi-) *pl:* **puuli**

**puuli** [púúlì] *n.* a funeral rhythm; a type of musical performance at a funeral rites session *pl:* **puulo** *2pl:* **puulee**

**puuri** [púúrí] *n.* flowers *sg:* **puuruu** *2pl:* **puuree** *Var.* **tepuuri**

**puuri** [pùùrì] *v.* to spray from the mouth (usually chewed material as medicine) **puuree, puuro, puuro, puuribo, puuraa, -** *Var.* **pu**

**puuri** [pùùrì] *v.* to harvest okra prematurely **puuree, puuro, puuro, puuribo, puuraa, -** *Var.* **pu**

damage **(2)** to be guilty **sãaɛ, saana, saana, saanema, saanaa, saanema**

**sãabile** [sã̀ã́bìlé] *n.* uncle (father's younger brother) *pl:* **saabilii/saabilimine** *2pl:* **saabilee** *Var.* **saambile**

**saabo** [sáábʊ́] *n.* flour paste (staple food of the Dagaare-speaking people) *2pl:* **saarɛɛ** *Var.* **TZ**

**saabuulaa** [sààbùùláà] *n.* porridge set for preparing saabo *pl:* **saabuuli**

**saadaare** [sáádáárɪ]́ *adv.* rainy, wet day

**saadoge** [sààdʊ́gɪ]́ *n.* large cooking pot *pl:* **saadogere** *2pl:* **saadogerɛɛ**

**saa-doge** [sààdʊ́gɪ]̀ *n.* earthenware cooking pot for soup *Var.* **zɛdo-** **gelee**


**saa-toloŋ** [sàá-tʊ́lʊ́ŋ] *n.* hot TZ *pl:* **saa-tolɔ/saa-tola**


**saluoni** [sàlúóní] *n.* sky *pl:* **saluomo** *2pl:* **saluonee**

**samafuu** [sàmàfúù] *n.* worth nothing in the end

**samane** [sámánɪ]́ *n.* immediate surroundings of a house *pl:* **samama** *2pl:* **samanɛɛ**

**samane** [sámánɪ]́ *n.* toilet *pl:* **samama** *2pl:* **samanɛɛ**


**saniŋe** [sàníŋè] *n.* West *Var.* **luou sanlɛre** [sànlɛ̀rɪ]̀ *n.* straw put up together to form a mat on which harvested ears of guinea corn is kept to dry *pl:* **sanlɛrre** *2pl:* **sanlɛrɛɛ** *Var.* **sɛnlɛre**


but he refused me. **sebɛɛ, sebrɛ, sebrɛ, sebrebɛ, sebraa**


*Ka fooŋ mare a bie anaŋ seɛ fo naŋ na pɛgele.* To carry the baby on your back is better than carrying by your side. **-, seɛrɛ**


**sege** [sɪgɪ ́ ]́ *n.* farm hut; camp *pl:* **segere** *2pl:* **segerɛɛ**


**segilekele** [ségílékélé] *adv.* standing upright, tall, and solitary e.g. tower

**sekãa** [sɪkã́ ́ã̀] *n.* pure honey *sg:*

**sekãao** *pl:* **sekaanɛɛ** *Var.* **sekãaboli**


**sellaa**


*pl:* **sensogere** *2pl:* **sensogerɛɛ** *Var.* **sensoglensogɔ, sensoga, soga**

**sensogɔ** [sɪnsʊ ́ ́gɔ̀] *n.* **(1)** home drain e.g. one leading out of the bathroom **(2)** a track fixed to drain rainwater from the top of a roof *pl:* **sensogere** *2pl:* **sensogerɛɛ** *Var.* **sensoga**


**seŋe** [sɪ̂ŋ] *adv.* like **•** *O e seŋ ŋa o ba*

*nyɛ ma na.* S/he behaved like s/he did not see me.


**sɛle** [sɛlɪ́ ]̀ *n.* the act of winning a

sɛle

game of bie outright *pl:* **sɛlɛ** *2pl:* **sɛlɛɛ**


*la a bie bare wɛ?* So, you have actually driven the child away?


**soma** [sʊ́má] *n.* a person who is good to one

**somasoma** [sʊ́másʊ́má] *adv.* quietly **somɔ** [sʊ́mɔ́] *adj.* good beautiful, attractive nice **•** *A pɔge na yɛlɛ somɔ la o ba baŋe yelfaare yeluu.* That woman is nice, she never uses unsavory language. *pl:* **sonne** *2pl:* **sonnɛɛ** *Var.* **soma**

**somɔ** [sʊ́mɔ́] *adj.* holy


**soŋ** [sʊ̌ŋ] *adj.* good, fine *pl:* **sonne** *2pl:* **sonnɛɛ**

**soŋe** [sʊ̀ŋ] *v.* to help **•** *Dagaaba nɔŋe ka ba maŋ soŋe taa ba tomɔ poɔ.* The Dagaaba like to help each other in their work. **soŋɛɛ, sonna, sonna, sonema, sonnaa, sonema**


**soore** [sʊ́ʊ́rɪ]́ *v.* **(1)** to hiss to drive fowls away **(2)** to hiss in pain e.g. after eating very spicy food

**soori** [sòòrí] *n.* locusts *pl:* **soori** *2pl:* **sooree**

**soɔ** [sʊ́ɔ́] *n.* knife *pl:* **sɔre** *2pl:* **sɔrɛɛ** *Var.* **sɔlee, sɔbilii**

**soɔ** [sʊ́ɔ̀] *v.* to blacken, to darken **soɔɛ, soɔrɔ, soɔrɔ, soɔreba, soɔraa, -** *Var.* **sɔɔ**


**sõɔgõɔo** [sʊ̃ ́ɔ̃ ́gʊ̃ ́ɔ̃ ́ʊ̃ ́] *n.* pretense

**soɔloŋ** [sʊ̀ɔ̀lʊ́ŋ] *n.* witchcraft


**sõɔzeɛnagbare** [sʊ̃ ́ɔ̃ ́zɪɛ́ nàgbárɪ ́ ]́ *n.* small but old or strong *pl:* **sõɔzeɛnagbarɛɛ**

**sori** [sórì] *n.* way, road *pl:* **soe** *2pl:* **soree**

**sotugane** [sótùgánɪ]́ *n.* map *pl:* **sotugama** *2pl:* **sotugannɛɛ**


**sɔge noɔre** to eat breakfast


**sɔre** [sɔ́rɪ]́ *v.* **(1)** to count **(2)** to read


**su bonsuuri** to wear clothes **su kaayaa** to wear clothes


kind heart **(2)** heart disease


## **t**


**taa poɔ**


**taa** [táá] *pron.* each other


**taama** [táámá] *n.* suffering


**taraa** [tàràà] *adj.* flat and thick


**te** [té] *adv.* really *Var.* **to**


*toɔbo kyebe.* The patient has been taken to the hospital but there is no hope.


**tere sori** allow, permit


**tɛŋ** [tɛ̀ŋ] *v.* **(1)** to sweeten **(2)** to ferment **tɛŋɛɛ, tɛnɛ, tɛnɛ, tɛnɛ, tɛnemɛ, tɛnaa**

**tɛŋkubo** [tɛŋkúbò] ̌ *n.* gravel


**ti** [tí] *v.* **(1)** to put hand on e.g. wall **•** *A baala ti la dankyini lɛnso ka o ba le.* The patient held the wall and that is why s/he did not fall. **(2)** to support by the use of a walking stick **(3)** to put up sticks with their tops meeting (making a farm hut) **tie, tiire, tiire, tiiribe, tiiraa**

**tigi** [tìgì] *v.* to gather e.g. crowd **tigee, tigre, tigre, tigribe, tigraa**


**tiiri** [tíírí] *n.* vomit *2pl:* **tiiree**


*gbori, zenɛ a zaaŋ mii tontoŋ lɛ.* The man banged his head against the door yesterday and today it really hurts.


**too** [tòò] *part.* okay *Var.* **tɔɔ**


**toopãapere** [tòòpã̀ã̀pɪrɪ́ ]̀ *n.* eardrum *pl:* **toopãapeɛ** *2pl:* **toopãapeerɛɛ**

**toopurimo** [tòópúrímó] *n.* draining ear *2pl:* **toopurimee**

**toore** [tʊ́ʊ́rɪ]̀ *v.* to spit **toorɛɛ, toorɔ, toorɔ, tooreba, tooraa, tooreba**

**toore** [tʊ̀ʊ̀rɪ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to push into e.g. foot into socks **(2)** to push along a surface, to drag along **toorɛɛ, toorɔ, toorɔ, tooreba, tooraa**

**toori** [tòòrí] *n.* ear *pl:* **tobo** *2pl:* **tooree**


for music; their step falls on the beat.


*ko n ma.* They shared the meat and I gave my share to my mother. *pl:* **tɔɛ** *Var.* **toɔre**


*N toɔre bɛ?* Where is my share of the food you cooked? *2pl:* **tɔɛ** *Var.* **toɔraa**

**toɔre** [tʊ̀ɔ̀rɪ]̀ *v.* to be careless; to not pay enough attention **•** *O toɔre la a ne,ne bare ka baare de.* S/he left the meat carelessly and dogs ate it. **-, toɔrɔ**

**topɛge** [tòpɛgɪ ́ ]́ *n.* boabab fruit shell *pl:* **topɛgre** *2pl:* **topɛgrɛɛ**


**tɔ zɔŋɔ kyi (5)** to beat about the bush **(6)** to be ignorant

**tɔba** [tɔ̀bà] *n.* tobacco *Var.* **tɔbɔ**


**tɔntɔbaa** [tɔ̀ntɔ́báá] *adv.* at once


**tulibo, tullaa**


## **u**


**ree**


**ulimo** [úlmó] *adj.* grey

**unni** [ùnnì] *v.* **(1)** unburying something buried **•** *Polisiri yeli ka ba ba baŋ a dɔɔ kũũ, pare a gaa te unni a kũũ.* The police said they did not know the cause of the man's death, so they went and exhumed the corpse. **(2)** to bring back past memories **•** *Ka Dɛre ne o pɔgeŋ wa zɔɔrɔ zaa a pɔge maŋ unni la yelikorɔ.* Each time Dɛre and his wife quarrel, the wife will always recount past events. **unnee,**

#### **unno, unno, unimo, unnaa**


## **v**


**vaane** [váánɪ]́ *adj.* shrunken


**vãee** [vã̀ɪ̃ɪ́̃]̀ *adv.* aromatically

**vage** [vágɪ]́ *v.* sounding like a bird pecking at a soft object (onomatopoeia) **vagɛɛ, vagra, vagra, vagreba, vagraa**


**vanne** [vánnɪ]̀ *v.* to stretch, to grow longer **vannɛɛ, vanna, vanna, vannaa**


**vamaaroŋ** [vámáárʊ́ŋ] *n.* green leaf *pl:* **vamaara** *2pl:* **vamaarɛɛ**


**vell** [vɪll]̀ *adj.* full to the brim


**venveŋ** [vɪnvɪ ́ ŋ]́ *n.* climax


**voora, voora, vooreba, vooraa, vooreba**


**voɔloŋ** [vʊ̀ɔ̀lʊ́ŋ] *adj.* slimy


**voraa** [vʊ́ráá] *n.* a hand drill; see kyaleere

**vore** [vʊ́rɪ]́ *v.* to make a hole through, to pierce e.g. ears, lips **vorɛɛ, vorɔ, vorɔ, voreba, voraa, voreba**

**vore** [vʊ́rɪ]́ *v.* to weave **vorɛɛ, vorɔ, vorɔ, voreba, voraa, voreba**

**vore** [vʊ́rɪ]̀ *n.* foetus *pl:* **voɛ** *2pl:* **vorɛɛ**

**vore** [vʊ́rɪ]̀ *adj.* alive *pl:* **voɛ** *2pl:* **vorɛɛ**

**vori** [vórì] *v.* to rot, to spoil completely **voree, voro, voro, voribo, voraa**

**vorikporo** [vóríkpóró] *adv.* watery manner

**vorovoro** [vòròvòrò] *adj.* watery

**vɔ** [vɔ́] *v.* to perform a type of ritual for a dead male **vɔɛ, voɔrɔ, voɔrɔ, voɔreba, voɔraa**

**vɔga** [vɔ́gà] *n.* track, trail *Var.* **vɔgɔ**

**vɔgaa** [vɔ̀gáá] *n.* silk cotton tree *pl:* **vɔgre** *2pl:* **vɔgrɛɛ**

**vɔge** [vɔ̀gɪ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to take off **(2)** to uncover **vɔgɛɛ, vɔgrɔ, vɔgrɔ, vɔgreba, vɔgraa**

**vɔge** [vɔ̀gɪ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to scald **(2)** to get burnt from hot substance **vɔgɛɛ, vɔgrɔ, vɔgrɔ, vɔgreba, vɔgraa**

**vɔgele** [vɔ̀glɪ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to cover **(2)** to put on top e.g. hat **(3)** to overturn e.g. container **vɔglɛɛ, vɔglɔ, vɔglɔ, vɔgleba, vɔglaa, vɔgleba**

**vɔgɔ** [vɔ́gɔ̀] *n.* track, trail *pl:* **vɔgre** *2pl:* **vɔgrɛɛ** *Var.* **vɔga**

**vɔlaa** [vɔ́láà] *n.* great desire for

**vɔle** [vɔ́lɪ]̀ *n.* great desire for meat; carnivorousness *pl:* **vɔlɛɛ** *2pl:* **vɔllɛɛ**

**vɔle** [vɔ́lɪ]́ *v.* to swallow **vɔlɛɛ, vɔlɔ, vɔlɔ, vɔlebɔ, vɔlaa, vɔlebɔ**

**vɔll** [vɔ̀ll] *adj.* beautifully; usually in the state of growing up

**vɔrekpɔrɔ** [vɔ̀rɪkpɔ ̀ ̀rɔ̀] *adv.* **(1)** wet and unwieldy **•** *Saseɛ fue la ka saa meŋ mi kõɔ lɔre a sagere ka a zie e lɛ vɔrekpɔrɔ.* The rain which followed the rainstorm has soaked the garbage in the yard making it wet and disorderly. **(2)** sound of fall by a long winding thing e.g. snake, rope (onomatopoeia)

**vu** [vú] *v.* **(1)** to crawl e.g. child **(2)** to drag along the ground **vue, vuuro, vuuro, vuribo, vuuraa, vuribo**

**vubiri** [vúbìrí] *n.* mound for yam plant *pl:* **vubie** *2pl:* **vubiiree**

**vuduori** [vúdúórì] *n.* the act of making yam mounds

**vuduoro** [vúdúóró] *n.* one who makes yam mounds *pl:* **vuduoribo**

**vulaŋkaŋkpogili** [vùlàŋkǎŋkpóglí] *n.* final thing *pl:* **vulaŋkaŋkpolo** *2pl:* **vulaŋkaŋkpolee**

**vuloŋkpogili** [vùlòŋkpóglí] *n.* beetle *pl:* **vuloŋkpogilo** *2pl:* **vuloŋkpogilee** *Var.* **vulaŋkpogli**

**vulotokpolo** [vùlòtókpóló] *n.* **(1)** piece of work meant to be one's

work for the day **(2)** stanza (literature) *pl:* **vulotokpolli** *2pl:* **vulotokpolee**


**vuoli kaa** to peer at


## **w**


**Waaloo** [wáálʊ̀ʊ̀] *n.* native of Wa *pl:* **waala**


**wae** [wáɪ]́ *adj.* nine

**waee** [wáɪɪ́]́ *adv.* at once


he left and never returned. **wanwɛɛ, wanaweɛrɛ, wanweɛrɛ, wanweɛrebɛ, wanweɛraa**


**weɛmɛ** [wɪɛ̀ ̀mɛ]́ *adj.* wild, untamed


**wele** [wɪlɪ́ ]́ *v.* to dismantle **welɛɛ, welɛ, welɛ, welebɛ, welaa**

**wele** [wɪlɪ́ ]́ *v.* to reduce in size e.g. obesity **welɛɛ, welɛ, welɛ, welebɛ, welaa**

**wele** [wɪlɪ́ ]́ *n.* a type of ornament for the arm *pl:* **welɛ** *2pl:* **welɛɛ**

**welɛnwelɛŋ** [wɪlɛ̀ nwɪ ́ lɛ̀ ŋ]́ *adv.* vigorous, rolling (boiling liquid)

**welɛwelɛ** [wɪlɛ̀ ̀wɪlɛ̀ ̀] *adv.* intermittent spackle


**wiiruŋ** [wíírúŋ] *n.* design


fluently (langauge) **wollɛɛ, wolla, wolla, wolba, wollaa**

**wolle** [wʊ́llɪ]́ *v.* to be mischievous **-, wolla, wolba, wollaa**

**wolomboll** [wòlòmbòll] *adj.* in disarray or confusion e.g. mob

**wolonwoloŋ** [wólónwólóŋ] *adv.* haphazard, in a troubled state

**woloŋ** [wʊ́lʊ́ŋ] *n.* **(1)** disease **(2)** problem

**wolowolo** [wólówóló] *adj.* restive


**wontaa** [wǒntáá] *n.* understanding between people

**woŋi** [wòŋ] *v.* **(1)** to hear **•** *N ba teɛre ka o woŋi a yɛlɛ te naŋ yeli.* I don't think s/he has heard what we said. **(2)** to refuse to listen or internalize what has been said (idiomatic usage) **woŋee, wono, wono, wonimo, wonaa, wonimo**

**woŋi** [wòŋ] *v.* to become deaf, to suffer from deafness, to be deaf **•** *Ka fo toboŋ beɛrɛ ka fo ba kaa a zu velaa fo na woŋi la.* If you have a disease of the ears and you do not take good care of them, you will be deaf. **woŋee, wono, wono, wonimo, wonaa, wonimo**

**woŋi** [wòŋ] *v.* to feel pain, to suffer **•** *Ba ŋmɛ la baa ka a woŋi ka o nyɛ, bini.* When they hit the

dog it felt so much pain that it defecated. **woŋee, wono, wono, wonimo, wonaa, wonimo**

**woŋ noɔ** to enjoy, to be glad **woŋ tuo** to suffer


**woo** [wóó] *interj.* a cry of pity

**woore** [wʊ̀ʊ̀rɪ]́ *n.* suffering

**woɔ** [wʊ́ɔ́] *n.* bag *pl:* **woore** *2pl:* **woorɛɛ**

**woɔ** [wʊ̀ɔ̀] *v.* **(1)** to remove from the top of e.g. basket of grain **•** *A seŋkãã paale la a pelee zuo, yɛ woɔ ka a ta yaara.* The basket is too full; remove some of the groundnuts so it does not spill. **(2)** to become smaller **•** *Dabuo da ba poɔrɔ kyɛ beri ayi ŋa o woɔ la o zaa.* Dabuo used to be plump, but recently he has gotten smaller. **woɔɛ, woɔrɔ, woɔrɔ, woɔreba, woɔraa**

**woɔle** [wʊ̀ɔ̀lɪ]̀ *v.* to remove top matter; to skim e.g. yeast from pito **woɔlɛɛ, woɔla, woɔla, woɔleba, woɔlaa**

**wore** [wʊ́rɪ]́ *adv.* too much; excessive

**woroto** [wʊ̀rʊ̀tʊ̀] *adv.* crashingly

**worɔworɔ** [wʊ̀rɔ̀wʊ̀rɔ̀] *adv.* full of lumps


**wɔɔ** [wɔ̀ɔ́] *n.* lame person *pl:* **wɔɔre**


**wɔɔgbɛre** [wɔ́ɔ̀gbɛrɪ́ ]̀ *n.* elephantiasis

**wɔɔgbɛre** [wɔ́ɔ̀gbɛrɪ́ ]̀ *n.* **(1)** leg of an elephant **(2)** difficult task (figurative) *pl:* **wɔɔgbɛɛ** *2pl:* **wɔɔgbɛrɛɛ**


**wuoli** [wúólì] *v.* **(1)** to despise, to

hoot at **(2)** to bark **wuolee, wuolo, wuolo, wuolibo, wuolaa, -** *Var.* **vuoli**


# **y**

**ya** [yá] *v.* to be mad, to be insane **yae, yaara, yaara, yareba, yaaraa**

**yaa** [yàá] *n.* tomb *pl:* **yaare** *2pl:* **yarɛɛ**

**yaa** [yáà] *v.* to take revenge, to retaliate (used with 'sane') **yaaɛ, yaara,**

**yaara, yaareba, yaaraa, yaareba**


### **yaaraa**


*lɛnso ka a a kyi yaare a sori zu zaa.* The bag is burst and that is why the millet is scattered all over the road. **(2)** to enlarge, to widen **•** *A pelee ŋa noɔre yaare gaŋ la n boɔbo.* The mouth of this basket is too large for my liking. **(3)** to perform final rites of widowhood **•** *Ka banaŋ ba yaare kodɔɔ bee kopɔge o ba taa sori na toŋ sɛŋgaŋ toma.* Until the final widowhood rites are performed neither the widow nor the widower can engage in sex. **(4)** to pester (typically used with noɔre) **•** *Ba yaare la n noɔre ne ba pɔge na yɛlɛ ka N te bale.* They pestered me about their woman's case until I became fed up. **yaarɛɛ, yaara, yaara, yaareba, yaaraa, yaareba**


*gaaba maŋ yage la baa, a na nyɛ kõɔ̃.* During the dry season, the Dagaaba dredge wells in order to get water. **(2)** to increase in size e.g. a sore **•** *Ka onaŋ ba gaa asibiti o fele na na yage la.* If she does not go to the hospital, her sore will develop into an ulcer. **yagɛɛ, yagra, yagra, yagreba, yagraa**

**yage** [yàgɪ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to take off e.g. a shirt **(2)** to take down from a hanging position e.g. a bag from a hook **yagɛɛ, yagra, yagra, yagreba, yagraa, -**

**yage bonsuuraa** to undress


wanted things from unwanted ones e.g. grain from stones **yeelɛɛ, yeelɛ, yeelɛ, yeelebɛ, yeelaa**


**yelbieri** [yèlbíérí] *n.* **(1)** evil thing **(2)** sin *pl:* **yelbebe**

**yelbiri** [yèlbírì] *n.* **(1)** word **(2)** something that is alluded to *pl:* **yelbie**

**yelbitɔnnaa** [yélbítɔ̀nnáà] *n.* conjunction *pl:* **yelbitɔnne** *2pl:* **yelbitɔnnɛɛ**

**yelboɔraa** [yèlbʊ́ɔ́ráá] *n.* something that is wanted *pl:* **yelboɔre**

**yelboɔraa** [yèlbʊ́ráá] *n.* **(1)** that which one likes **(2)** objective **(3)** something negative that affects one but caused by one's self *Var.* **yeldaaraa**



**waale yeli** to whisper

**yelkaama** [yèlkáámá] *n.* **(1)** beautiful talk **(2)** literature *2pl:* **yelkaamɛɛ**

**yelkãasɛgere** [yèlkã́ã́sɛgrɪ ́ ]́ *n.* written literature


**yel-eraa** [yèl-ɪráà] ́ *n.* something to be done *pl:* **yel-erre**


something that is heard *pl:* **yeliwonni**

**yelwono** [yèlwónó] *n.* **(1)** listener, hearer **(2)** obedient person *pl:* **yeliwonimo**

**yelwontaa** [yèlwòntàá] *n.* compromise, understanding

**yelyelbaraa** [yèlyèlbàráà] *n.* statement (grammar) *pl:* **yelyelbarre**

**yelyeluu** [yèlyélúú] *n.* issues that cause anger

**yelzagera** [yèlzágrá] *n.* one who refuses or disobeys *pl:* **yelzagereba**

**yeme** [yèmé] *n.* slave *pl:* **yenni** *2pl:* **yennee** *Var.* **yieme**

**yempɔge** [yèmpɔ́gɪ]́ *n.* female slave *pl:* **yelmpɔgeba** *2pl:* **yempɔgrɛɛ**

**yempɔge** [yèmpɔ́gɪ]́ *n.* name traditionally given to a female child born outside the house *pl:* **yelmpɔgeba** *2pl:* **yempɔgrɛɛ**

**yendɔɔ** [yèndɔ́ɔ́] *n.* male slave


**yensogɔ** [yénsʊ́gɔ́] *n.* night *pl:* **yensogere** *2pl:* **yensogerɛɛ** *Var.* **yensoga, tensogɔ, tensoga**

**yeŋ** [yêŋ] *adv.* where

**yeŋe** [yèŋé] *adv.* outside *Var.* **yeŋi**

**yeŋi** [yèŋí] *adv.* outside *Var.* **yeŋe**

**yɛ** [yɛ̀] *pron.* you (second person plural weak form)


**yɛle** [yɛlɪ́ ]̀ *n.* cockroach *pl:* **yɛlɛ** *2pl:* **yɛlɛɛ**

**yɛle** [yɛ̀lɪ]̀ *v.* **(1)** to multiply e.g. animals reproducing **(2)** to enlarge **yɛlɛɛ, yɛllɛ, yɛllɛ, yɛlebɛ, yɛllaa**

**yɛlɛ** [yɛlɛ́ ]́ *n.* **(1)** an issue **(2)** discussion, conversation **(3)** serious matter

**yɛloŋ** [yɛlʊ́ ́ŋ] *adj.* wide *pl:* **yɛlle**

**yɛmbaŋ** [yɛmbàŋ] ́ *n.* cleverness, wisdom

**yɛmbaŋena** [yɛmbáŋɪ ́ ná] ́ *n.* one who

has good sense, wise person *pl:* **yɛmbaŋnema**

**yɛmbile** [yɛmbílé] ́ *n.* small intelligence *pl:* **yɛmbilii** *2pl:* **yɛmbillee**

**yɛnkyeerɛ** [yɛnʧɪ ́ ɪ́rɛ́ ]́ *n.* little mind

**yɛnkyeeroo** [yɛnʧɪ ́ ɪ́rʊ́ ́ʊ́] *n.* prudence

**yɛnlige** [yɛnlígè] ́ *n.* unclear mind

**yɛnnyaa** [yɛnɲáà] ́ *n.* the act of developing intelligence

**yɛnwuli** [yɛnwúlì] ́ *n.* the act of teaching sense

**yɛnwuluu** [yɛnwúlúú] ́ *n.* the act of teaching sense or conscience

**yɛnyɛŋ** [yɛɲɛ́ ŋ]́ *adj.* near


capital. **yɛrɛɛ, yɛrɛ, yɛrɛ, yɛreba, yɛraa, yɛreba**


**yɛroŋ** [yɛrʊ́ ́ŋ] *n.* trade, business

**yi** [yí] *v.* **(1)** to go out, to exit **•** *Te naŋ yi ka te gaa a kpaaroŋ la ka saa deɛ wa miire.* As we went out to go to the farm, it started raining. **(2)** to divorce (by a woman) **•** *A dɔɔ nɔŋ la o pɔge ŋmeɛbo lɛnso ka o yi.* The man likes beating his wife and that is why she has divorced him. **yie, yire, yire, yiribe, yiraa, yiribe**

**yi kyeɛ** to fade

**yi sori** to travel, to go on a trip


the mother very much. **yie, yire, yire, yiribe, yiraa, yiribe**


**yieme** [yìèmé] *n.* slave *Var.* **yeme**


shall go. **(2)** be informed **•** *A toma ŋa fo yoŋ la so a yoo?* Be informed that that work is for you alone.


**yopɔgeraa** [yòpɔ́gɪráá] ́ *n.* lid, cover of a pot

**yoreyoree** [yʊ̀rɪyʊ̀ ́rɪ]́ *v.* to break into little bits


**yosãa** [yósã̀ã̀] *n.* slander *pl:* **yosãa**


## **z**


**zeɛ-genegene** [zɪɛ̀ -gènègènè] ́ *adj.* brown


long beak that is fond of flowers *pl:* **zelegannɔɛ**


**zell** [zɪll]́ *adv.* filled to the brim


**zɛlezɛlɛ, zɛlezɛlɛ, zɛlezɛlebɛ, zɛlezɛlaa**


**zikpeɛraa** [zìkpɪɛ́ ráà] ́ *n.* inhabitance, residence *pl:* **zikpeɛre zikyɛnfeɛle** [zìʧɛ̀nfɪɛ́ lɪ́ ]́ *n.* cold early morning *pl:* **zikyɛnfeɛlɛ zimaale** [zìmààlɪ]̀ *n.* development **zimaaliire** [zìmáálììré] *n.* dusk, twilight (after sunset) *pl:* **zimaaliiri** *2pl:* **zimaaliiree zimaane** [zìmáánɪ]́ *adv.* evening **zimaaroŋ** [zìmàárʊ́ŋ] *n.* cool or wet place *pl:* **zimaara zimaavɛ̃ɛ** [zìmáávɛ̃ ̀ɛ̃ ̀] *n.* evening; between four-thirty and five o'clock **zimaavɛnɛvɛnɛ** [zìmáávɛ̀nɛ̀vɛ̀nɛ̀] *n.* dusk **zimezime** [zímézímé] *adv.* of considerable weight **zimɛrɛmɛrɛ** [zìmɛ̀rɛ̀mɛ̀rɛ̀] *n.* muddy place **zinziŋ** [zíŋzíŋ] *adv.* very heavy **zinyaane** [zìɲàànɪ]́ *n.* dawn *2pl:* **zinyaanɛɛ** *Var.* **zivɛlemɛ ziŋi** [zîŋ] *v.* to pound vigorously **ziŋee, ziŋine, ziŋine, ziŋime, ziŋinaa zipigi** [zìpìgí] *n.* a type of large brown antelope with white spots on its sides *pl:* **zipigri** *2pl:* **zipigree ziponsentaa** [zìpónsɪntáá] ́ *n.* midnight **zirii** [zìríì] *n.* a lie or lies *2pl:* **zirree** *Var.* **ziriŋ**

**ziriŋ** [zìrǐŋ] *n.* lies *2pl:* **zirree** *Var.* **zirii**

**ziriŋma** [zìríŋmà] *n.* the act of lying

**ziriŋmaara** [zìríŋmáárá] *n.* liar *pl:* **ziriŋmaareba**

**zisɔgelaa** [zìsɔ́gláá] *n.* **(1)** dark place **(2)** hiding place *pl:* **zisɔgele**

**zitɔɔre** [zìtɔ̀ɔ̀rɪ]́ *n.* distant place *pl:* **zitɔbɔ**

**zivelaa** [zìvɪlàá] ̀ *n.* good place, nice place *pl:* **ziveɛle** *2pl:* **ziveɛlɛɛ**

**zivɛlemɛ** [zìvɛlɪ́ mɛ ́ ]́ *n.* dawn *2pl:* **zivɛlemɛɛ** *Var.* **zinyaane**

**ziyuo** [zìyùò] *n.* modernization

**zo** [zò] *v.* **(1)** to run **(2)** to run away, to escape **(3)** to flow (river water) **zoe, zoro, zoro, zoribo, zoraa, zoribo**

**zoge** [zʊ̀gɪ]̀ *v.* to thicken, to become hard e.g. palm of a one who does rough/odd jobs **zogɛɛ, zogerɔ/zogera, zogerɔ/zogera, zogereba, zogeraa**

**zogele** [zʊ̀glɪ]̀ *v.* to develop large rashes **zogelɛɛ, zogelɔ/zogela, zogelɔ/zogela, zogeleba, zogelaa**

**zogelɔŋ** [zʊ̀glɔŋ] *adj.* thick and attached to *Var.* **zogelaŋ**

**zogere** [zʊ́grɪ]̀ *v.* to shake vigorously **zogrɛɛ, zogra, zogra, zoreba, zograa**

**zogere** [zʊ̀grɪ]̀ *v.* to become thick or hard **zogerɛɛ, zogera, zogera, zogereba, zogeraa**

**zogetogo** [zʊ̀gtʊ̀gʊ̀] *adv.* thick and wool-like

**zogboŋgboli** [zʊ̀gbòŋgbòlì] *n.* the thickest part of an animal's tail that is long *pl:* **zogboŋgbolo** *2pl:* **zogboŋgbolee**

**zokpore** [zʊ́kpʊ́rɪ]́ *n.* the bottom end of the spinal cord *pl:* **zokpoɛ** *2pl:* **zokporɛɛ**

**zolaa** [zʊ́láá] *n.* pot with a very small mouth *pl:* **zolaare** *2pl:* **zolaarɛɛ**

**zolaa** [zʊ̀làà] *adj.* big, large

**zoma** [zʊ̀má] *n.* instinct *Var.* **zomɔ**

**zombaa** [zʊ́mbáá] *n.* catfish *pl:* **zombaare** *2pl:* **zombaarɛɛ**

**zomberemɛ** [zʊ́mbɪrɪ́ mɛ ́ ]́ *n.* a type of tree with medicinal properties *2pl:* **zomberemɛɛ**

**Zombɛnte** [zúmbɛntɪ ́ ]́ *n.* a religious festival of Southern Dagao *pl:* **zombɛntere** *2pl:* **zombɛnterɛɛ**

**zombɛraa** [zʊ́bɛráá] ́ *n.* fishhook *pl:* **zombɛrre**

**zombiri** [zʊ̀mbírì] *n.* insult, abuse *sg:* **zombiruu** *pl:* **zombie** *2pl:* **zombiiree**

**zomm** [zómm] *adv.* still, calm, unmoving

**zommo** [zʊ́mmʊ́] *n.* fish *pl:* **zoma** *2pl:* **zonnɛɛ**

**zomɔ** [zʊ̀mɔ́] *n.* instinct *Var.* **zoma**

**zompɛge** [zʊ́mpɛgɪ ́ ]̀ *n.* fish scale *pl:* **zompɛgre/zompɛgɛ** *2pl:* **zompɛgrɛɛ**

**zompĩi** [zʊ́pĩĩ́]̀ *n.* fishhook *pl:* **zompiime** *2pl:* **zompiimee/zompiinee**

**zone** [zʊ́nɪ]́ *n.* insult, abuse *pl:* **zoma** *2pl:* **zonnɛɛ**

**zonkyoo** [zʊ́nʧóò] *n.* fishing net *pl:* **zonkyoori** *2pl:* **zonkyooree**


**zɔnnoŋ** [zɔ̀nnʊ́ŋ] *n.* blindness

**zɔnzɔrema** [zɔ̀nzɔ́rɪmá] ́ *n.* cobweb, dirt hanging on walls and ceiling *Var.* **zɔnzɔremɔ**

**zɔnzɔremɔ** [zɔ̀nzɔ̀rɪmɔ ́ ́] *n.* cobweb, dirt hanging on walls and ceiling *2pl:* **zɔnzɔremɛɛ** *Var.* **zɔnzɔrema**

**zɔŋa** [zɔ̀ŋá] *n.* blind person *Var.* **zɔŋɔ, zɔŋe**

**zɔŋe** [zɔ́ŋ] *n.* **(1)** flour **(2)** pulp *2pl:* **zɔnnɛɛ**

**zɔŋe** [zɔ̀ŋ] *v.* to be blind **zɔŋɛɛ, zɔnnɔ, zɔnnɔ, zɔnemɔ, zɔnnaa, zɔnemɔ**

**zɔŋe** [zɔ̀ŋɪ]́ *n.* blind person *Var.* **zɔŋɔ, zɔŋa**

**zɔŋkõɔ** [zɔ̌ŋkʊ̃ ́ɔ̃ ́] *n.* **(1)** food for workers at work **(2)** water mixed with flour *pl:* **zɔŋkoɔnɛɛ**

**zɔŋkɔŋ-ɔnnɔ** [zɔ̌ŋkɔ́ŋ-ɔ́nnɔ́] *n.* one who cooks workers' food *pl:* **zɔŋkɔŋ-ɔnemɔ** *2pl:* **zɔŋkɔŋɔnemɛɛ**

**zɔŋɔ** [zɔ̀ŋɔ́] *n.* blind person *pl:* **zɔnne** *2pl:* **zɔnnɛɛ** *Var.* **zɔŋa, zɔŋe**

**zɔɔ** [zɔ̀ɔ́] *n.* ambush *pl:* **zɔɔre** *2pl:* **zɔɔrɛɛ**

**zɔɔ** [zɔ̀ɔ̀] *adj.* long and flowing e.g. hair


**zɔɔ-bɔ** [zɔ̀ɔ̀-bɔ́] *n.* the act of irritating others


**zugane** [zúgánɪ]́ *n.* skin of the head *pl:* **zugama** *2pl:* **zugamɛɛ**


**zulimo** [zúlímó] *adj.* **(1)** uneven, sloped **(2)** unbalanced (weight)

**zuluŋ** [zùlûŋ] *adj.* deep *pl:* **zulli** *2pl:* **zullee**

**zuluŋ** [zùlǔŋ] *n.* army ant, soldier ant *2pl:* **zullee**

**zu-maala** [zú-máálá] *n.* hairdresser *pl:* **zu-maaleba**


**zunzugiri** [zùnzùgrí] *n.* large isolated cloud *sg:* **zunzugiruu** *pl:* **zunzugo** *2pl:* **zunzugiree**

**zuŋ** [zǔŋ] *adv.* on top of *Var.* **zu poɔ**


**zuŋmane kõɔ** [zúŋmánɪ́kʊ̃ ́ɔ̃ ́] *n.* great suffering (typically used with nyu)

**•** *Deyɛŋ boŋkoɔre ba maale ka nembaaleba da nyu ba zuŋmane kõɔ.* Last year, there was a poor crop yield and poor people suffered greatly.

**zu-ɔɔ** [zú-ɔ̀ɔ̀] *n.* the condition of having a headache *pl:* **zu-ɔɔre**

**zupili** [zúpílí] *n.* hat, cap *sg:* **zupiluu** *pl:* **zupile** *2pl:* **zuplee**

**zupiltobo** [zúpìlìtòbó] *n.* a hat that covers the ears *2pl:* **zupiltobee**

**zupoli** [zúpólí] *n.* sinciput (the front of the skull) *sg:* **zupollee** *pl:* **zupolo** *2pl:* **zupolli**

**zu-pono** [zúpónó] *n.* barber *pl:* **zuponimo**

**zu pozu** [zú pòzú] *v.* to gossip

**zusãa** [zúsã̀ã̀] *n.* **(1)** immorality **(2)** the practice of vice


**zutalaa** [zútálàà] *n.* headdress *pl:* **zutalle** *2pl:* **zutallɛɛ**

**zutuo** [zútúó] *n.* misfortune *pl:* **zutuuri** *2pl:* **zutuuree**


**zuyɔɔ** [zúyɔ́ɔ́] *n.* head tax *2pl:* **zuyɔɔrɛɛ**

**zuzeɛ** [zúzɪɛ̀ ]́ *n.* leader, forerunner *pl:* **zuzeere** *2pl:* **zuzeerɛɛ**

**zuzeɛ** [zúzɪɛ̀ ]́ *n.* red-haired person *pl:* **zuzeere** *2pl:* **zuzeerɛɛ**

**zu zɔŋe** [zú zɔ̂ŋ] *v.* to be ashamed **zue zɔŋe**

**zuzuu** [zùzúú] *adj.* monstrous

**zuo** [zùò] *v.* **(1)** to be more than **(2)** to be too much **(3)** to pass someone by

## A dictionary and grammatical sketch of Dagaare

This book presents an extensive dictionary of the Dagaare language (Niger-Congo; Gur (Mabia)), focussing on the dialect of Central Dagaare, spoken in the Upper West region of Ghana. The dictionary provides comprehensive definitions, example sentences and the English translations, phonetic forms, inflected forms, etymological notes as well as information dialectal variation. This work is intended as a resource for linguists, but also as a resource for Dagaare speakers. Also included is a grammatical sketch of Dagaare contributed by Prof. Adams Bodomo.