The Yalë language, also known as Yadë, Nagatman, or Nagatiman, is spoken in northwestern Papua New Guinea. It may be related to the Kwomtari languages, but Palmer (2018) classifies it as a language isolate.
There were 600 speakers in 1991 and 30 monolinguals at an unrecorded date. Yalë is spoken in Nagatiman () and several other villages of Green River Rural LLG in Sandaun Province. Foley (2018) reports a total of six villages.
Yalë is in extensive trade and contact with Busa, a likely language isolate spoken just to the south. Yalë has complex verbal inflection and SOV word order.
Phonology
The linguist Aidan Aannested, in a work from 2020Aannested, Aidan. (2020). "Towards a grammar of the Yale language: taking another look at archived field data". SIL International. https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/74/13/68/74136897596164130243049362044105596501/Yade_Grammar.pdf, gives the following phonology for Yadë (Yalë):
+Consonants Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar GlottalNasal PlosiveVoiceless Voiced ~ ~ ~ Fricative Affricate ~ Approximant
"dd" is pronounced as a trilled See the source for more information regarding allophones- the ones listed are just the common occurrences.
+Vowels Front Central Back Close Close-Mid Open-Mid Open
Each vowel has a wide range of possible realizations, most notably /u/, which has: /y/, /ʉ/, /ʊ/, and /u̟/
Grammar
Verbs Verbal conjugation affixes are: -d: generic marker -t: transitive marker -b: intransitive marker
Nouns Most nouns are not pluralized, and only nouns with human or animate reference or with high local salience may be pluralized using the suffix -rɛ ~ -re: nɛba 'child' → nɛba-re /child-PL/ ‘children’ ama 'dog' → ama-re /dog-PL/ ‘dogs’ dife 'village' → dife-rɛ /village-PL/ ‘villages’ Other plural nouns are irregular: aya 'father' → aya-nino /father-PL/ ‘fathers’ mise ‘woman’ → one ‘women’
Personal pronouns The personal pronouns are:
! Person!! Singular !! Plural |- ! 1st | bo || se ~ sebo |- ! 2nd | ju || so ~ sobo |- ! 3rd | colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | bu
Basic vocabulary The following basic vocabulary words are from Conrad and Dye (1975),Conrad, R. and Dye, W. "Some Language Relationships in the Upper Sepik Region of Papua New Guinea". In Conrad, R., Dye, W., Thomson, N. and Bruce Jr., L. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 18. A-40:1-36. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:
{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Yalë |- | head || ʌsu |- | hair || ʌsʌǏahuᵽa |- | ear || ąhuǏuʔ |- | eye || na:ba |- | nose || yɛlu |- | tongue || aǏižiʔ |- | louse || mibaʔ |- | dog || kaliʔ |- | pig || gǏɛǏiʔ |- | bird || pʋlɛʔ |- | egg || kah |- | blood || wi:nuʔ |- | bone || ɛlɛ:b̶u |- | skin || žib̶uʔ |- | breast || ma:ba |- | tree || ti: |- | woman || mɩsɛʔ |- | water || tuʔ |- | fire || ahuʐiʔ |- | stone || anɩziʔ |- | road, path || ařʌgɛʔ |- | eat || hiɛǏɛ |- | one || žuwaʔ |- | two || teǏɛʔ
Further reading Campbell, Carl and Jody Campbell. 1987. Yadë Grammar Essentials. Unpublished manuscript. Ukarumpa, PNG: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Campbell, Carl and Jody Campbell. 1990. Yadë (Nagatman) – English Dictionary. Unpublished manuscript. Ukarumpa, PNG: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Campbell, Carl and Jody Campbell. 1997. Yalë (Nagatman, Yadë) Phonology Essentials. Unpublished manuscript. Ukarumpa, PNG: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
References
External links Nagatiman language word list at TransNewGuinea.org Paradisec has an open access collection that includes Yalë language materials from Don Laycock