The first Symposium on West African Languages (SyWAL2014) will be held at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” (Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies), Italy, on March 27 and 28. The SyWAL is meant to serve as a venue for those scholars working on West African languages under a wide spectrum of theoretical perspectives and research approaches. We encourage submissions highlighting descriptive, documental and theoretical issues arising across different regions and linguistic phyla of West Africa.