Yuat languages
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| Yuat | |
|---|---|
| Middle Yuat River | |
| Geographic distribution | Yuat River area, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea |
| Linguistic classification | One of the world's primary language families |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | yuat1252 |
The Yuat languages are an independent family of five Papuan languages spoken along the Yuat River in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. They are an independent family in the classification of Malcolm Ross, but are included in Stephen Wurm's SepikâRamu proposal. However, Foley and Ross could find no lexical or morphological evidence that they are related to the Sepik or Ramu languages.
It is named after the Yuat River of northern Papua New Guinea. Yuat languages are spoken mostly in Yuat Rural LLG of East Sepik Province.[1][2]
Languages
[edit]The Yuat languages proper are:
Classification
[edit]Foley (2018) provides the following classification.[3]
- Yuat family
Changriwa and Mekmek are attested only by short words, and are tentatively grouped as separate branches by Foley (2018: 226) due to scanty evidence.
Pronouns
[edit]The pronouns Ross (2005) reconstructs for proto-Yuat are:
I *Ćun we *amba thou *ndi you *mba s/he *wu they ?
Vocabulary comparison
[edit]The following basic vocabulary words are from Davies & Comrie (1985),[4] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.[5]
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. Ćkaá”baá”gatâ, ĆgambaĆ for âlegâ) or not (e.g. fufuimaye, ÉžÉ'ziru for âhairâ).
gloss Biwat[6] Kyenele (Kyaimbarang dialect) Kyenele (Miyak dialect) head fop; fopeh ÏÉpâ ᔜop hair fufuimaivi; fufuimaye ÏÉ'ziru fusibÉ©ÄŸu ear tuanhe; tundu 'twan tandu eye siketeh; sipta 'ÉikÉŻ sÉ©pÊ°ala nose gerekeh; Ćerek 'ĆÉĆÉrÉ© nÊnÉlÉ©Ć tooth andu; andusivahe 'Ćandu Ćandu tongue be; behe 'mbᎶe mpe leg gambang; geambangeh Ćkaá”baá”gatâ ĆgambaĆ louse uta; utaeh uta wututÊ°oma dog ken; kenhe kᎶÉn gÉn pig vereh; vre ÎČÉrÉ© ÆeÇe bird kaok; kaokhek hÉpáŽ¶É wanma egg momoateh; mumuat 'majmuma wanmuma blood amberaeh; ambra ambara ambala bone amfuva; amfuvaheh amÏu amᔜuwa skin gamfuin; iaveteh 'vÉšza nᔜɩsakÊ° breast meru; meruhe mi miĆu tree mung; mungeh mu mĂŻ man foakpa; fuakpahe aÎČÉšd aÆÉ·t woman arepa; arepahe mᎶe miandu sun va; vaeh ÎČanma Æanma moon mumere; mumereh 'gÉĆatâ ĆgÉšĆat water mam; mumeh 'maĆam maĆam fire mehen; men mÉšn mÉšn stone ghateh; yiak mÉšndÉm mÉšndÉ©m road, path maikua; miakuahe maj mayt name vu'geh; vuĆ wuĆ eat ueh jiveh; u-u give ÉÉnÉÉn tĆĄÉntĆĄÉntĆĄuÆa one nategeh; natek ĆajkÉ ĆaykÊ°ÊkÊ° two arauu; aravueh aÉœawi aÇawin
Grammar
[edit]Yuat languages distinguish inclusive and exclusive first person pronouns, a feature not found in most other Papuan languages. This typological feature has also diffused from Yuat into the Grass languages, which are spoken contiguously to the Yuat languages.[3]
Yuat grammar and phonology are similar to those of the neighboring Ramu languages.[3] Yuat verbal morphology is relatively simple.[3]:â230â
Yuat languages are accusative, unlike many other Papuan languages, e.g., Trans New Guinea, East Cenderawasih Bay, Lakes Plain, South Bougainville, which are all ergative.[7]
Word order in Yuat languages, like in the Yawa languages, is rigidly SOV, whereas in many other Papuan families, OSV word order is often permitted (as long as the verb is final).[7]:â920â
See also
[edit]- Maramba language, a possibly spurious language often listed as Yuat.
- Upper Yuat languages
References
[edit]- â Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
- â United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197â432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- â 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. doi:10.15144/PL-A63.275
- â Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
- â SIL (1975) & SIL (1976)
- 1 2 Foley, William A. (2018). "The morphosyntactic typology of Papuan languages". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 895â938. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15â66. doi:10.15144/PL-572. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.
