Upper Yuat languages

Upper Yuat
Upper Yuat River
Geographic
distribution
Upper Yuat River watershed, Papua New Guinea
Linguistic classificationNortheast New Guinea and/or Trans–New Guinea
  • Madang – Upper Yuat
    • Upper Yuat
Subdivisions
GlottologNone

The Upper Yuat languages consist of two small language families, namely Arafundi and Piawi, spoken in the region of the upper Yuat River of New Guinea. The connection was first suggested by William A. Foley and confirmed by Timothy Usher, who further links them to the Madang languages.

Upper Yuat languages display more typological similarities with Trans-New Guinea than the other neighboring language families of the Sepik-Ramu basin (namely the Lower Sepik-Ramu and Yuat families). The Madang languages are frequently included in Trans–New Guinea classifications, but the connection is not yet demonstrated.

The Piawi languages are morphologically much simpler than the Arafundi languages.

Pronouns

Pronouns are:

Proto-Upper Yuat pronouns
sg pl
1 *ni *an ~ *aŋ
2 *na *ne
3 *nu

The individual languages are as follows:

Harway Hagahai Pinai    Lower
Arafundi
Upper
Arafundi
Awiakay
1sg nɨ-ɡə ŋɨ-ɡə nɨ-ɡa ɲɨŋ niŋ niŋ
2sg na-ɡo na-ɣə na-ɡa nan nan nan
3sg nu-ɡʷə nə-ɣʷə an an
1du as as as
2/3du nɨɲ nen neɲ
1pl an-ɡə an-ɡə nanə-ɡa
2/3pl ɲɨ-ɡə ɲe-ɡə ɲi-ɡa noŋ noŋ noŋ

3rd-person *nu (number uncertain) corresponds to Piawi 3 singular and Arafundi 2/3 plural, *ne to Piawi 2/3 plural and Arafundi 2/3 dual.

Phonology

Upper Yuat languages typically have 7 vowels:: 236 

i ɨ u
e ə o
a

This page was last updated at 2024-02-10 05:12 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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