Yali language
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.
| Yali | |
|---|---|
| Yalimo | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Highlands of Irian Jaya |
| Ethnicity | Yali |
Native speakers | (30,000 cited 1988–1999)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:yli – Anggurk Yalinlk – Ninia Yaliyac – Pass Valley Yali |
| Glottolog | yali1257 |
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.