Yele language

The Yele language, or ''Yélî Dnye'', is the language of Rossel Island, the easternmost island in the Louisiade Archipelago off the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea. There were some 4,000 speakers in 1998, comprising the entire ethnic population. The language remains unclassified by linguists.

Classification

For now, the language is best considered unclassified. It has been classified as a tentative language isolate that may turn out to be related to the Anêm and Ata language isolates of New Britain (in a tentative Yele – West New Britain family). Typologically it is more similar to the Oceanic languages of southern New Guinea than to the isolates of New Britain. Word order tends to be SOV (verb-final).

Stebbins et al. (2018) classifies Yélî Dnye as an isolate. They explain similarities with Austronesian as being due to contact and diffusion.

Phonology

Yele has a uniquely rich set of doubly articulated consonants. In nearly all the languages of the world which have them, these are labial–velar consonants—that is, they are pronounced simultaneously with the lips and the back of the tongue, such as a simultaneous ''p'' and ''k''. Only Yele is known to contrast other doubly articulated positions: besides labial–velar, it has two distinct ''labial–alveolar'' positions (laminal/dental and apical/postalveolar), as illustrated below.

The two coronal articulations are (1) laminal/dental and slightly pre-alveolar, sometimes transcribed tʸ, nʸ, etc. (see denti-alveolar consonant), and (2) apical and slightly post-alveolar, sometimes transcribed ṭ, ṇ etc., ʈ, ɳ, etc., or simply t, n, etc.

There are two other doubly articulated consonants, as in ''lvámê'' (a type of cane) and . The Yele ''w'' is labial–dental . These doubly articulated consonants contrast with labialization (SIL 1992/2004). Many articulations may also be palatalized. Stops may be either pre- or (except perhaps for ) post-nasalized. The consonant inventory includes the following:

It is not clear how many of the labial–velar and labial–alveolar consonants such as may also be labialized or palatalized. Nor is it clear how many of these articulations occur prenasalized or with nasal release, but besides those noted above, the following are noted in SIL 1992/2004: .

The oral stops (that is, apart from dental ) are voiced between vowels and when prenasalized. The (post-)alveolar is further reduced to an (apparently dental) flap between vowels. Some of the palatalized alveolar stops are pronounced as fricatives or affricates, such as (or perhaps ) and (or perhaps ), but SIL (1992/2004) contradicts itself as to which these are.

Yele also has many vowels, a noteworthy number of which are nasalized:

(The distinction between open-mid and close-mid nasal vowels is rather unusual, and SIL (1992/2004) provides no examples of the close-mid vowels. They also fail to provide an example of .)

Vowels may occur long or short. SIL (1992/2004) interprets other vowel sequences as being separated by rather than as diphthongs.

Given that vowels may be long or short, Yele syllables may only be of the form V or CV, and in the former case, apparently only or .

Orthography

The multigraphs for complex consonants are not always transparent. The labial-velar and labial-alveolar consonants are written with the labial second: ''kp, dp, tp, ngm, nm, ńm, lv.'' Prenasalized is written ''mb,'' but and are written ''nt'' and ''nk'' to distinguish them from ''nd'' and ''ng'' . Prenasalized stops are written with an ''m'' when labial, including doubly articulated stops, as with ''md'' or ''mg'' , and with ''n'' otherwise. Nasal release is likewise written ''n'' or ''m,'' as in ''dny'' , ''kn'' , ''dm'' , ''km'' . Labialization is written ''w,'' and palatalization ''y,'' apart from ''ch'' for and ''nj'' for (it is not clear if ''ch'' and ''nj'' are dental or (post-)alveolar).

Of the vowels, only ''a'' and ''u'' occur initially. Long vowels are written doubled, and nasal vowels with a preceding colon ('':a'' for ), except for short vowels after a nasal consonant (or a nasal release?), where vowel nasality is not contrastive.

Grammar

Yele has been studied extensively by cognitive linguists. It has an extensive set of spatial postpositions. Yele has eleven postpositions equivalent to English ''on''; using different ones depending factors such as whether the object is on a table (horizontal), a wall (vertical), or atop a peak; whether or not it is attached to the surface; and whether it is solid or granular (distributed).

Pronouns

Yele has a set of free pronouns and a set of bound possessive pronouns.

:

Vocabulary

Selected basic vocabulary items in Yélî Dnye:Henderson, James E. and Anne Henderson, compilers. 1999.
Rossel to English, English to Rossel Dictionary
'. Dictionaries of Papua New Guinea, Vol. 9. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

:

Sample text

''Kiye w:ââ u pi Peetuuki, ka kwo, Doongê. Nê kuu. Daa a w:ââ. Nkal u w:ââ. Nkal ngê yinê kaa ngê. W:ââ dono. Pi yilî u te. U nuu u pi da tóó. Pi u lama daa tóó. M:iituwo Yidika, Mépé tp:oo mî kiye ngê. Daanté. Mépé dono ngê pyodo. Apê, W:ââ mbwámê nînê châpwo. Nkal ngê kwo, "Up:o" . W:ââ mî mbêpê wo, chii mênê. Mépé ngê w:ââ mbwámê mêdîpê châpwo. Awêde ka kwo, Doongê. Pi maa daa t:a. A danêmbum u dî.''

"The savage dog is called "Peetuuki", and he lives at Doongê. It's nothing to do with me. It's not my dog. It's Nkal's dog. He raised it. It's a bad dog. It bites everyone. It doesn't like anyone. Recently it bit Mépé's son, Yidika. It really bit him hard. Mépé became very angry, and said, 'I'm going to kill that dog'. The dog ran away into the bush, so Mépé could not kill it. So now it's still there at Doongê, so there's not a safe road through there. That's the end of my story." (SIL 1992/2004)

References

Bibliography

* James E. Henderson, 1995. ''Phonology and grammar of Yele, Papua New Guinea.'' Pacific Linguistics B-112. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
*Peter Ladefoged & Ian Maddieson, 1996. ''The sounds of the world’s languages.'' Oxford: Blackwells.
*Stephen C. Levinson, 2003. ''Space in Language and Cognition: Explorations in Cognitive Diversity.'' Cambridge University Press.
* Phonology sketch from SIL, 1992/200

External links

*
* Paradisec ha
multiple collections with Yele materials
including two collections of Arthur Capell, Arthur Cappell's materials
AC1AC2
.
* The World Atlas of Language Structures lists 44 typological features of "Yelî Dnye" based on from James Henderson's 1975 and 1995 grammars of the language. https://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_yel

{{Languages of Papua New Guinea

Yele–West New Britain languages
Language isolates of New Guinea
Languages of Milne Bay Province
Nuclear Papuan Tip languages