Editing Ligbi language (section)

{{Short description|Mande language spoken in Ghana}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Ligbi
|states=[[Ghana]]
|region=Brong-Ahafo region, adjacent part of [[Ivory Coast]]
|speakers=19,000
|date=1991–2003
|ref=e18
|familycolor=Niger-Congo
|fam1=[[Niger–Congo languages|Niger–Congo]]
|fam2=[[Mande languages|Mande]]
|fam3=Western Mande
|fam4=Central
|fam5=Manding–Jogo
|fam6=Jogo–Jeri
|fam7=[[Jogo languages|Jogo]]
|iso3=lig
|glotto=ligb1244
|glottorefname=Ligbi
}}

The '''Ligbi''' (or Ligby) people speak a [[Mande languages|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 International|SIL]]). It is fairly closely related to [[Dioula language|Jula]], [[Vai language|Vai]] and [[Kono language (Sierra Leone)|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; {{lang|dyu|Numu}} is Dyula for 'blacksmith'. (See [[blacksmiths of western Africa]].)

The Ligbi area in Ghana is bordered to the west by [[Nafaanra language|Nafaanra]], the [[Senufo languages|Senufo]] language of the [[Nafana (people)|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.<ref>{{cite book |first=Jack |last=Goody |chapter=The Mande and the Akan Hinterland |title=The Historian in Tropical Africa |editor-first=J. |editor-last=Vansina |editor-first2=R. |editor-last2=Mauny |editor-first3=L. V. |editor-last3=Thomas |year=1964 |location=London |publisher=Oxford University |pages=192–218}}</ref> 
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 (C<sub>1</sub>)V(C<sub>2</sub>) or N (a [[syllabic nasal]]), where CV is the most common syllable type.  C<sub>1</sub> can be any of the consonants, whereas the optional C<sub>2</sub> slot can have only nasals [[homorganic]] with the following consonants, e.g., {{lang|lig|gbá<u>m</u> mádáánè}} "nine houses," {{lang|lig|gbá<u>n</u> táà}} "ten houses." V (a vowel) alone occurs word-initial only in personal pronouns, some loan words, and names, e.g., {{lang|lig|á jádɛ̀}} "we have come."