Ligbi language

Ligbi
Ligbi
Native to	Ghana
Region	Brong-Ahafo region, adjacent part of Ivory Coast
Native speakers	(19,000 cited 1991–2003)
Language family	Niger–Congo Mande Western Mande Central Manding–Jogo Jogo–Jeri Jogo Ligbi; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lig
Glottolog	ligb1244
ELP	Hwela

The Ligbi (or Ligby) people speak a Mande language in Ghana, in the north-west corner of the Brong-Ahafo Region. Ligbi is spoken by approximately 10,000 speakers (1988 GILLBT/SIL). It is fairly closely related to Jula, Vai and Kono. A small population of Ligbi speakers (around 4,000) is reported to live in Ivory Coast (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'. (See blacksmiths of western Africa.)

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.^[2] 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 nasals homorganic 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."

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants^[3]
		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Labial- velar	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t̪	tʃ	k	kp
Plosive/ Affricate	voiced	b	d̪	dʒ	g	gb
Nasal		m	n̪	ɲ	ŋ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s				(h)
Fricative	voiced	(v)	(z)
Approximant			l	j		w

/d/ is [r] between vowels.^[3]
/k/ and /g/ are [ɣ] between vowels.^[3]
/d/, /g/, and /l/ are nasalized between nasal vowels.^[3]
/h/ occurs in English and Arabic loanwords.^[3]
/v/ and /z/ only occur in ideophones.^[3]

Vowels

Oral vowels^[3]
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

Nasal vowels^[3]
	Front	Central	Back
Close	ĩ		ũ
Close-mid	ẽ		õ
Open-mid	ɛ̃		ɔ̃
Open		ã

Tones

Ligbi has two level tones, low and high.^[3]

Notes

^ Ligbi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Goody, Jack (1964). "The Mande and the Akan Hinterland". In Vansina, J.; Mauny, R.; Thomas, L. V. (eds.). The Historian in Tropical Africa. London: Oxford University. pp. 192–218.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Persson & Persson 1980, p. LIG 5.

References

Persson, Andrew; Persson, Janet (1980). "Ligbi". In Kropp Dakubu, Mary Esther (ed.). West African Language Data Sheets. Vol. 2. West African Linguistic Society. pp. LIG 1-LIG 6. OCLC 9403639.

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[e18-1] Ligbi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] Goody, Jack (1964). "The Mande and the Akan Hinterland". In Vansina, J.; Mauny, R.; Thomas, L. V. (eds.). The Historian in Tropical Africa. London: Oxford University. pp. 192–218.

[FOOTNOTEPerssonPersson1980LIG_5-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Persson & Persson 1980, p. LIG 5.

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