The Ata language, also known as Pele-Ata after its two dialects, or Wasi, is a
Papuan language
The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non-Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogra ...
spoken on
New Britain island,
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
. It appears to be related to neighboring
Anêm, and possibly also to
Yélî Dnye in a proposed
Yele-West New Britain family. There are about 2000 speakers.
Ata is spoken in
West Pomio-Mamusi Rural LLG,
East New Britain Province
East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely d ...
, and in
Talasea District
Talasea District is a district of the West New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Kimbe
Kimbe is the capital of the province of West New Britain in Papua New Guinea, and the largest settlement on the island. The bustling town o ...
,
West New Britain Province
West New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea on the islands of New Britain. The provincial capital is Kimbe. The area of the province is 20,387 km² with a population of 264,264 as of the 2011 census. The province's only land border is w ...
.
Dialects
According to Yanagida (2004), there are two dialects of Ata, a ''Lower'' dialect spoken in the lowlands and an ''Upper'' dialect spoken in the mountains.
[Yanagida, Tatsuya. 2004. Socio-historic overview of the Ata language, an endangered Papuan language in New Britain, Papua New Guinea. In Shibata Norio and Shionoya, Toru (eds.), ''Kan minami Taiheiyoo no gengo 3'' anguages of the South Pacific Rim 3 61-94. Suita: Faculty of Informatics, Osaka Gakuin University.] The Lower dialect is spoken in
Bialla Rural LLG,
West New Britain Province
West New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea on the islands of New Britain. The provincial capital is Kimbe. The area of the province is 20,387 km² with a population of 264,264 as of the 2011 census. The province's only land border is w ...
, while the Upper dialect is spoken mostly in
West Pomio-Mamusi Rural LLG,
East New Britain Province
East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely d ...
:
Lower dialect (in
Bialla Rural LLG,
West New Britain Province
West New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea on the islands of New Britain. The provincial capital is Kimbe. The area of the province is 20,387 km² with a population of 264,264 as of the 2011 census. The province's only land border is w ...
):
*Kiava (Old Kiava) ()
*Korovasi
*Malasi ()
*Milikina (Elobe) ()
*Mulusi
*Ole
*Sale (Gogosi) ()
*Sege ()
*Silanga
ettlement()
Upper dialect (in
West Pomio-Mamusi Rural LLG,
East New Britain Province
East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely d ...
, unless noted otherwise):
*Sipa (Bauka), West New Britain ()
*Uasilau
ettlement West New Britain ()
*Kaikou ()
*Lavugi ()
*Luge, West New Britain ()
*Ti ()
*Yauyau ()
*Kukulu ()
Both the lower and upper dialects are spoken in the settlement of Silanga.
There are some lexical differences between the dialects. Some examples are listed below.
:
Phonology
Phonology of the Ata language:
/s/ is pronounced as alveolo-palatal
•before /i/, /x/ is voiced as
£when occurring intervocalically.
A word-initial /i/ is realized as a
and a word-initial /u/ becomes a
when preceding /o/ or /É‘/.
Noun classes
Ata makes use of noun classes, some of which are:
*Class 1 nouns: stationary and function in a state of relative stagnancy
*Class 2 nouns: portable and function in a state of relative motion
*Class 3 nouns: relating to the body’s internal needs
Below are some Ata noun class paradigms, using the noun roots ''lavo’o'' ‘stone’ and ''lexe'' ‘song’ as examples:
:
:
Vocabulary
Selected basic vocabulary items in Ata:
:
See also
*
East Papuan languages
References
Further reading
*
{{Languages of Papua New Guinea
West New Britain languages
Languages of East New Britain Province
Languages of West New Britain Province