The Yam languages, also known as the Morehead River languages, are a family of Papuan languages. They include many of the languages south and west of the Fly River in Papua New Guinea and Indonesian Western New Guinea (South Papua).
| Yam | |
|---|---|
| Morehead River | |
| Geographic distribution | Morehead River watershed, New Guinea |
| Linguistic classification | A primary language family
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | more1255 |
 Map: The Yam languages of New Guinea
Yam languages
Trans–New Guinea languages
Other Papuan languages
Austronesian languages
Australian languages
Uninhabited | |
Name
editThe name Morehead and Upper Maro River, or Morehead–Maro, refers to the area around the Morehead and Maro rivers. Most of the languages are found between these rivers, but the Nambu subgroup are spoken east of the Morehead. Evans (2012) refers to the family instead with the more compact name Yam. This name is motivated by a number of linguistic and cultural items of significance: yam (and cognates) means "custom, tradition"; yəm (and cognates) means "is"; and yam tubers are the local staple and of central cultural importance.
External relationships
editRoss (2005) tentatively includes the Yam languages in the proposed Trans-Fly – Bulaka River family. More recently (Evans 2012) has argued that this is not justified and more data has to be gathered. Evans (2018) classifies the Pahoturi River languages as an independent language family.[1]
Yam languages have also been in intensive contact with Marind and Suki speakers, who had historically expanded into Yam-speaking territories via headhunting raids and other expansionary migrations.[1]
Classification
editInternal classification of the Yam languages:[2]
- Yei
- Tonda languages (a dialect chain)
- Nambu languages (a dialect chain)
Wichmann (2013) did not find a connection between the branches in his automated comparison.[3]
Languages
editYam languages are spoken by up to 3,000 people on both sides of the border in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. In Papua New Guinea, Yam languages are spoken in Morehead Rural LLG, Western Province. In Papua, Indonesia, Yam languages are spoken in Merauke Regency.[1]
Yam languages and respective demographic information listed by Evans (2018) are provided below.[1] Geographical coordinates are also provided for some villages.[4]
See also: Districts of Papua (Indonesian Wikipedia)
Pronouns
editThe pronouns Ross (2005) reconstructs for the family are,
- Proto-Yam (Proto–Morehead – Upper Maro)
I/we *ni you *bu s/he/they *be
Typology
editMany Yam languages display vowel harmony, including in Nambu and Tonda languages.[1]
Vocabulary comparison
editThe following basic vocabulary words are from McElhanon & Voorhoeve (1970)[5] and Voorhoeve (1975),[6] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.[7]
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. tor, ter for “tooth”) or not (e.g. sento, yarmaker for “bird”).
gloss Kanum Yei head mel kilpel hair mel-kata peab eye si cur tooth tor ter leg tegu cere louse neːmpin nim dog krar jeu pig kwer becek bird sento yarmaker egg bel mekur blood mbel gul bone mbaːr gor skin keikei paːr tree per per man ire el-lu sun koŋko mir water ataka kao fire mens benj stone melle mejer name iu ore eat anaŋ cenye one namper nampei two yempoka yetapae
Further reading
edit- Carroll, Matthew J., Nicholas Evans, I Wayan Arka, Christian Döhler, Eri Kashima, Volker Gast, Tina Gregor, Julia Miller, Emil Mittag, Bruno Olsson, Dineke Schokkin, Jeff Siegel, Charlotte van Tongeren & Kyla Quinn. 2016. Yamfinder: Southern New Guinea Lexical Database.
- Döhler, Christian (2018) A grammar of Komnzo. (Studies in Diversity Linguistics 22). Berlin: Language Science Press. doi:10.5281/zenodo.1477799. ISBN 978-3-96110-125-2. Accessed on 2019-11-12.
- Evans, Nicholas, I Wayan Arka, Matthew Carroll, Christian Döhler, Eri Kashima, Emil Mittag, Kyla Quinn, Jeff Siegel, Philip Tama & Charlotte van Tongeren. 2017. The languages of Southern New Guinea. In Bill Palmer (ed.), The languages and linguistics of the New Guinea area, 641–774. Berlin; Boston: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-029525-2. Accessed on 2019-11-12.
- Kaiping, Gereon A. & Edwards, Owen & Klamer, Marian (eds.). 2019. LexiRumah 2.2.3. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available online at https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/lexirumah/. Accessed on 2019-09-14.
- Greenhill et al., 2008. In: Kaiping, Gereon A. & Edwards, Owen & Klamer, Marian (eds.). 2019. LexiRumah 2.2.3. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available online at https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/lexirumah/. Accessed on 2019-09-14.
References
edit- ^ a b c d e Evans, Nicholas (2018). "The languages of Southern New Guinea". 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. 641–774. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- ^ Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Morehead River
- ^ Wichmann, Søren. 2013. A classification of Papuan languages. In: Hammarström, Harald and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact and classification of Papuan languages (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, Special Issue 2012), 313-386. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
- ^ United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
- ^ McElhanon, K.A. and Voorhoeve, C.L. The Trans-New Guinea Phylum: Explorations in deep-level genetic relationships. B-16, vi + 112 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1970. doi:10.15144/PL-B16
- ^ Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. doi:10.15144/PL-B31
- ^ Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
- 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.
- Evans, Nicholas (2012). "Even more diverse than we had thought: The multiplicity of Trans-Fly languages". LD&C Special Publication. 5. University of Hawai'i Press: 109–149.
External links
edit- Yamfinder
- Morehead languages documentation project (DOBES)
- Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, East Morehead River (under construction 2020)
- (ibid.) West Morehead River (under construction 2020)