Upper Yuat languages
| Upper Yuat | |
|---|---|
| Upper Yuat River | |
| Geographic distribution | Upper Yuat River watershed, Papua New Guinea |
| Linguistic classification | Northeast New Guinea and/or Trans–New Guinea |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | None |
| ELP | Lua error in Module:Endangered_Languages_Project at line 21: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). |
The Upper Yuat languages consist of two small language families, namely Arafundi and Piawi, spoken in the region of the upper Yuat River of New Guinea. The connection was first suggested by William A. Foley[2] and confirmed by Timothy Usher, who further links them to the Madang languages.[1]
Upper Yuat languages display more typological similarities with Trans-New Guinea than the other neighboring language families of the Sepik-Ramu basin (namely the Lower Sepik-Ramu and Yuat families).[2] The Madang languages are frequently included in Trans–New Guinea classifications, but the connection is not yet demonstrated.
The Piawi languages are morphologically much simpler than the Arafundi languages.[2]
Linguistic varieties
[edit | edit source]Foley (2018) lists the following linguistic varieties.[2]
- Upper Yuat
- Piawi languages: Harway (Wiyaw / Waibuk), Pinai-Hagahai (Pinaye, Aramo / Aramaue)
- Arafundi languages: Awiakay, Lower Arafundi, Upper Arafundi, Imboin
Pronouns
[edit | edit source]Reconstructions of Proto-Upper Yuat personal pronoun are:[2]
Proto-Upper Yuat pronouns singular plural 1st person *ni *an ~ *aŋ 2nd person *na *ne 3rd person *nu
Personal pronouns in individual languages are as follows:[2]
Harway Hagahai Pinai Lower
ArafundiUpper
ArafundiAwiakay 1SG nɨ-ɡə ŋɨ-ɡə nɨ-ɡa ɲɨŋ niŋ niŋ 2SG na-ɡo na-ɣə na-ɡa nan nan nan 3SG nu-ɡʷə nə-ɣʷə an an 1DU as as as 2/3DU nɨɲ nen neɲ 1PL an-ɡə an-ɡə nanə-ɡa aŋ aŋ 2/3PL ɲɨ-ɡə ɲe-ɡə ɲi-ɡa noŋ noŋ noŋ
3rd-person *nu (number uncertain) corresponds to Piawi 3 singular and Arafundi 2/3 plural, *ne to Piawi 2/3 plural and Arafundi 2/3 dual.
Phonology
[edit | edit source]Upper Yuat languages typically have 7 vowels:[2]: 236
i ɨ u e ə o a
References
[edit | edit source]Further reading
[edit | edit source]- Davies, J. and Comrie, B. "A linguistic survey of the Upper Yuat". In Adams, K., Lauck, L., Miedema, J., Welling, F., Stokhof, W., Flassy, D., Oguri, H., Collier, K., Gregerson, K., Phinnemore, T., Scorza, D., Davies, J., Comrie, B. and Abbott, S. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 22. A-63:275-312. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1985. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).