A grammatical sketch of isaalo (western sisaala) thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of masters of arts in english with a concentration in linguistics and a certificate in language technology

This thesis presents a gramatical description of Western Sisaala, a previously undocumented language spoken by fewer than 10,000 individuals in the upper west region of Ghana. This work is based on three months of field work in Lambussie with two native speakers. Its main emphasis is to describe the languages phonological description, which has been the basis for the development of an orthography for its speakers. Other chapters in this work include a description of the Sisaala language complex, the sociolinguistic situation of the speakers of western Sisaala language complex, the sociolinguistic situation of the speakers of western Sisaala, and a preliminary analysis of Western Sisaala'a morphological system. Western Sisaala belongs to the Western Grusi branch of the Gur language family, of the Niger-Congo phylum. Historically it has been considered a dialect of the much larger Sisaala Tumulung of the Sisaala language complex, but this work recognizes it as a distinct language.