A comprehensive dictionary of Lwo/Acholi, a local language spoken mostly in northern Uganda and southern Sudan. Lwo/Acholi is a language of the southern Luo group and the western Nilotic branch of Eastern Sudanic. All entries in the dictionary are given in the Acholi language with definitions in English, and examples of usage in Acholi with parallel translations in English. The Acholi used is drawn from the dialects that have been least affected by external linguistic influence: the Payira, Patiko, Paico, Bwobo and Alero clans. The introductory section provides an overview of the structure and grammar of the language, covering nouns, verbs, vowels, tenses, singular and plural forms and phonetics.

The main purpose of this dictionary is twofold. On the one hand, it provides the scholar of African studies with a tool to identify the possible Portuguese origin of terms present in African languages and, on the other, it offers those who are interested in Portuguese culture an overview of the presence of its lexicon in African languages. No doubt the Portuguese were among the first Europeans to explore the world outside of Europe, and as such they were also the first to introduce that world to European concepts and words.This book is the result of a long and detailed work on texts in African languages, as also shown by the rich bibliography in the dictionary.