Yessan-Mayo (also known as Yesan, Mayo, and natively known as Yamano) is a Papuan language spoken by 2000 people in Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in Maio () and Yessan () villages of Yessan ward, Ambunti Rural LLG, East Sepik Province.
Phonology The phonology of Yessan-Mayo is described in Foley (2018) as such:
Vowels FrontCentralBackCloseMidOpen
Consonants Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal PlosiveFricativeNasalTrillApproximant
Pronouns Foreman (1974) describes two kinds of pronouns in Yessan-Mayo: non-emphatic and emphatic pronouns.
In addition to the non-emphatic pronouns, there is also the reflexive pronoun kwarara (self), as well as the demonstrative pronouns op (this) and otop (that).
Non-emphatic singular dual plural 1st person an nis nim 2nd person ni kep kom 3rd personmale ri rip rimfemale ti
Emphatic singular dual plural 1st person arin nisis nirim 2nd person nirin kerip kerim 3rd personmale atar atep atemfemale atat
External links Paradisec has a collection of Don Laycock's (DL2) that includes Yessan-Mayo language materials.
References