Dagbon oral literature
Dagbon oral literature; the language of the Dagbamba (Dagomba) people is the most widely spoken language in the northern part of Ghana.
The language has been passed on from one generation to another through a complex system of oral literature, woven around proverbs, idioms, antonyms, synonyms and other form of oral narrations such as riddles and folklore known among the Dagomba people as Salinlɔha and Salima salimbu respectively. Others include poetry and riddles.
Even though, with the passage of time, the language has gone through some adulteration as a result of adoption of words from foreign languages such as the Hausa, Laribanga and Wangara, nonetheless, the Dagomba people still recognise these foreign words as such, as they use them in their every day conversations.
The Lunsi, who are said to be the custodians of Dagbon history and culture, are responsible for maintaining greater portions of the original Dagbon words, as they sing the appellations of past and present Chiefs of Dagbon, as well as recollecting of events in past.
For this reason, the wordings as used by the lunsi are so rich that, it takes those who’ve been properly brought up in a Dagbon home to understand them fully.
