- Ligbi language
language
name=Ligbi
states=Ghana
region=Brong-Ahafo region, adjacent part ofCôte d'Ivoire
speakers=10,000
familycolor=Niger-Congo
fam2=Mande
fam3=Western Mande
fam4=Central
fam5=Manding-Jogo
fam5=Jogo
iso2=nic|iso3=ligLigbi (or Ligby) is a Mande language spoken in
Ghana in the north-west corner of theBrong-Ahafo region. Ligbi is spoken by approximately 10 000 speakers (1988 GILLBT/SIL). It is fairly closely related to Bambara/Jula and to Vai and Kono. A small population of Ligbi speakers (4 000) is reported to live in Cote d'Ivoire (Vanderaa 1991). Ligbi is also known as Wela, Hwela or Numu. The latter of these refers to a subsection of the Ligbi people; Numu is Dyula for 'blacksmith'.The Ligbi area in Ghana is bordered to the west by Nafaanra, the Senufo language of the Nafana people. The Ligbi people have come to the area of
Begho (Bighu), an ancient trading town on the Tain river in Ghana, in the early 17th century before the Nafana. [ Jack Goody, "The Mande and the Akan Hinterland", in: The Historian in Tropical Africa, J.Vansina, R.Mauny and L.V.Thomas eds., 1964, London, Oxford University, 192-218]Ligbi has seven oral and seven nasal vowels. It is a tonal language with two level tones, High and Low. Syllables are of the form (C1)V(C2) or N (a
syllabic nasal ), where CV is the most common syllable type. C1 can be any of the consonants, whereas the optional C2 slot can have only nasalshomorganic with the following consonants, e.g., "gbám mádáánè" "nine houses," "gbán táà" "ten houses." V (a vowel) alone occurs word-initial only in personal pronouns, some loan words, and names, e.g., "á jádɛ̀" "we have come."Notes
References
*Persson, Andrew and Janet (1976) 'Ligbi', in Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu (ed.) "West African Linguistic Data Sheets", vol 1.
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