Yuat languages
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 Sepik–Ramu proposal. However, Foley and Ross could find no lexical or morphological evidence that they are related to the Sepik or Ramu languages.
| 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 | |
| Glottolog | yuat1252 |
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]
Classification
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
The pronouns Ross (2005) reconstructs for proto-Yuat are:
I *ŋun we *amba thou *ndi you *mba s/he *wu they ?
Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from Davies & Comrie (1985),[4] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[5]
gloss Biwat[6] Kyenele (Kyaimbarang dialect) Kyenele (Miyak dialect) head fop; fopeh ϕɔp∘ ᵽop hair fufuimaivi; fufuimaye ϕə'ziru fusibɩľu ear tuanhe; tundu 'twan tandu eye siketeh; sipta 'ɕikɯ sɩpʰala nose gerekeh; ŋerek 'ŋəŋərɩ nʌnɛlɩŋ tooth andu; andusivahe 'ŋandu ŋandu tongue be; behe 'mbᴶe mpe leg gambang; geambangeh ŋkaᵐbaᵐgat∘ ŋgambaŋ louse uta; utaeh uta wututʰoma dog ken; kenhe kᴶɛn gɛn pig vereh; vre βɛrɩ ƀeǏe bird kaok; kaokhek hɔpᴶɛ wanma egg momoateh; mumuat 'majmuma wanmuma blood amberaeh; ambra ambara ambala bone amfuva; amfuvaheh amϕu amᵽuwa skin gamfuin; iaveteh 'vɨza nᵽɩsakʰ breast meru; meruhe mi miřu tree mung; mungeh mu mï man foakpa; fuakpahe aβɨd aƀɷt woman arepa; arepahe mᴶe miandu sun va; vaeh βanma ƀanma moon mumere; mumereh 'gəŋat∘ ŋgɨŋat water mam; mumeh 'maŋam maŋam fire mehen; men mɨn mɨn stone ghateh; yiak mɨndəm mɨndɩm road, path maikua; miakuahe maj mayt name vu'geh; vuŋ wuŋ eat ueh jiveh; u-u give ɕɛnɕɛn tšɛntšɛntšuƀa one nategeh; natek ŋajkə ŋaykʰʌkʰ two arauu; aravueh aɽawi aǏawin
Grammar
Yuat languages distinguish inclusive and exclusive first person pronouns, a feature not found in most other Papuan languages. This tyopological 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]: 230
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]: 920
See also
- Maramba language, a possibly spurious language often listed as Yuat.
- Upper Yuat languages
References
- 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.
- United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
- 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. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- 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
- Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
- SIL (1975) & SIL (1976)
- 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. 895–938. 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. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.