Biksi-Yetfa language
Yetfa and Biksi (Biaksi; Inisine[3]) are dialects of a language spoken in Jetfa District, Papua, Indonesia, and across the border in Papua New Guinea. It is a trade language spoken in West Papua up to the PNG border.
| Biksi-Yetfa | |
|---|---|
| Biksi | |
| Native to | Indonesia and Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Jetfa District in Pegunungan Bintang Regency |
| Ethnicity | Yetfa, Biksi |
Native speakers | 1,000 (1996)[1] |
Pauwasi
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | yet |
| Glottolog | yetf1238[2] |
According to Hammarström (2008), it is being passed on to children and is not in immediate danger.
External relationships
Yetfa is not close to other languages. Ross (2005), following Laycock & Z’Graggen (1975), places Biksi in its own branch of the Sepik family, but there is little data to base a classification on. The similarities noted by Laycock are sporadic and may simply be loans; Ross based his classification on pronouns, but they are dissimilar enough for the connection to be uncertain. Usher found it to be a Southern Pauwasi language. Foley (2018) classifies it as a language isolate.[3]
Foley (2018b: 295-296) notes that first person pronoun and third-person singular masculine pronoun in Yetfa match pronouns found in Sepik languages, with some resemblances such as nim ‘louse’ with proto-Sepik *nim ‘louse’, and wal ‘ear’ with proto-Sepik *wan. However, Foley (2018b) considers the evidence linking Yetfa to the Sepik family to be insufficient, thus classifying Yetfa as a language isolate until further evidence can be found.[4]
Pronouns
Pronouns from Ross (2005):
I nyo we nana thou pwo you so s/he do they dwa
Pronouns from Kim (2005), as quoted in Foley (2018):[3]
Yetfa independent pronouns sg pl 1 na no 2 po so-na-m 3 do do-na-ma
Basic vocabulary
Basic vocabulary of Yetfa from Kim (2006), quoted in Foley (2018):[5][3]
Yetfa basic vocabulary gloss Yetfa ‘bird’ dau ‘blood’ dueal ‘bone’ fan ‘breast’ nom ‘ear’ wal ‘eat’ ɲa ‘egg’ nela ‘eye’ i ‘fire’ yao ‘give’ ni- ‘go’ la- ‘ground’ permai ‘hair’ framai ‘hear’ wi- ‘I’ na(wo) ‘leg’ yop ‘louse’ nim ‘man’ nam ‘moon’ dirmanel ‘name’ met ‘one’ kəsa ‘road, path’ mla ‘see’ am- ‘sky’ aklai ‘stone’ tekop ‘sun’ imenel ‘tongue’ mor ‘tooth’ doa ‘tree’ yo ‘two’ daisil ‘water’ ket ‘we’ no(wo) ‘woman’ romo ‘you (sg)’ po(wo) ‘you (pl)’ sonam
Sentences
There is very little sentence data for Yetfa. Some of the few documented Yetfa sentences are:[3]
(1)
do mete ti-yo 3SG yesterday come-TNS - ‘She came yesterday’
(2)
do muni ɲ(a)-awa-te ni-yo 3SG money 1SG-father-DAT? give-TNS - ‘She gave money to my father.’
The Yetfa tense suffix -(y)o is also present in Tofanma.[3]
References
- Biksi-Yetfa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Yetfa". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- 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. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- Kim, So Hyun. 2006. Survey Report on the Yetfa Language of Papua, Indonesia. Unpublished report. Jayapura: SIL Indonesia.