Yali language
| Yali | |
|---|---|
| Yalimo | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Highlands of Irian Jaya |
| Ethnicity | Yali |
Native speakers | (30,000 cited 1988–1999)[1] |
Trans–New Guinea
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:yli – Anggurk Yalinlk – Ninia Yaliyac – Pass Valley Yali |
| Glottolog | yali1257 |
Yali (Yaly, Jalè, Jaly) is a Papuan language of Indonesian New Guinea. The Yali people live east of the Baliem Valley, in the Western Highlands.
Dialectical differentiation is great enough that Ethnologue assigns separate codes to three varieties:
- Pass Valley, also known as Abendago, North Ngalik, and Western Yali; subdialects are Pass Valley, Landikma, Apahapsili.
- Ninia, also known as North Ngalik and Southern Yali (Yali Selatan).
- Angguruk, also known as Northern Yali.
However, almost nothing is known of this language. Not even the pronouns were attested for Ross (2005) to base a classification on. With this said, new data is currently being elicited from correspondence between Quinn Cunningham and Felix Neckweck.
Siegfried Zoellner, a German missionary, has between 1960 and 1973 translated the bible into the Yali language.
Phonology[]
The phonology of the Yali language:[2]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiced | b | d | k ɡ | ||
| prenasal | mb | nd | ŋɡ | |||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | ||||
| Fricative | f | s | h | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Implosive | ɗ | |||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||
A /ɡ/ sound at the end of words is pronounced /ʁ/.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a |
Basic words and phrases[]
The following is a list of basic words and phrases in the Yali language:
- howam fano wellahen - how are you
- waa waa - thank you
- ninim ar - you're welcome
- nomin - friend
- fano - good
- ari - that
- du - this
- eke - and
- nune - speak/talk
- inune - language
- nare - man
- nowam - my news/state
- howam - your (sg.) news/state
- wellahi - for myself
- wellahen - for yourself
- wallahen - for him/herself
- wallahi - for ourselves
- wellahep - for yourselves/themselves
- fam - *end of statement particle
- an nahien - I am pleased
- an ari nindi - I like that
- an den angge - I have
- ar an nomin - S/he is my friend
- ir an nomini - They are my friends
- ar nomin fano - S/he is a good friend
- ir an nomini Amerikoan - My friends are from America
- an nune Yali inune fam - I speak Yali
Pronouns[]
Personal pronouns of the Yali language
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | an | nir |
| 2nd person | har | hir |
| 3rd person | ar | ir |
References[]
- ^ Anggurk Yali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Ninia Yali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Pass Valley Yali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) - ^ Fahner, Christiaan (1979). The Morphology of Yali and Dani: A Descriptive and Comparative Analysis.
- 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. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.
References[]
- Zöllner, Siegfried; Zöllner, Ilse (2017). Riesberg, Sonja (ed.). A Yali (Angguruk) – German Dictionary / Wörterbuch Yali (Angguruk) – Deutsch. A-PL 37. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. hdl:1885/127381. ISBN 978-1-922185-39-6.
- Dani languages
- Languages of western New Guinea
- Papuan language stubs