Yalë language

The Yalë language, also known as Nagatman, is spoken in northwestern Papua New Guinea. It may be related to the Kwomtari languages, but Palmer (2018) classifies it as a language isolate.[3]

Yalë
Nagatman
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionSandaun Province
Native speakers
(600 cited 1991)[1]
Senu River or language isolate
  • Guriaso–Yale
    • Yalë
Language codes
ISO 639-3nce
Glottologyale1246[2]
Coordinates: 3.744917°S 141.471593°E / -3.744917; 141.471593 (Nagatiman)

There were 600 speakers in 1991 and 30 monolinguals at an unrecorded date.[1] Yalë is spoken in Nagatiman (3.744917°S 141.471593°E / -3.744917; 141.471593 (Nagatiman)) and several other villages of Green River Rural LLG in Sandaun Province.[4][5] Foley (2018) reports a total of six villages.[6]

Yalë is in extensive trade and contact with Busa, a likely language isolate spoken just to the south. Yalë has complex verbal inflection and SOV word order.[6]

Pronouns

Pronouns are:[6]

sgpl
1 bose ~ sebo
2 juso ~ sobo
3 bu

Grammar

Verbal conjugation affixes are:[6]

  • -d: generic marker
  • -t: transitive marker
  • -b: intransitive marker

Most nouns are not pluralized, and only nouns with human or animate reference or with high local salience may be pluralized using the suffix -rɛ ~ -re:[6]

  • nɛba-re /child-PL/ ‘children’
  • ama-re /dog-PL/ ‘dogs’
  • dife-rɛ /village-PL/ ‘villages’

Other plural nouns are irregular:[6]

  • aya-nino /father-PL/ ‘fathers’
  • mise ‘woman’, one ‘women’

Further reading
  • Campbell, Carl and Jody Campbell. 1987. Yadë Grammar Essentials. Unpublished manuscript. Ukarumpa, PNG: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  • Campbell, Carl and Jody Campbell. 1990. Yadë (Nagatman) – English Dictionary. Unpublished manuscript. Ukarumpa, PNG: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  • Campbell, Carl and Jody Campbell. 1997. Yalë (Nagatman, Yadë) Phonology Essentials. Unpublished manuscript. Ukarumpa, PNG: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
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References
  1. Yalë at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Yale". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Palmer, Bill (2018). "Language families of the New Guinea Area". 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. 1–20. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  4. 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.
  5. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
  6. 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.
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