Ata language

The Ata language, also known as Pele-Ata after its two dialects, or Wasi, is a Papuan language spoken on New Britain island, Papua New Guinea. 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, and in Talasea District, West New Britain Province.

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, while the Upper dialect is spoken mostly in West Pomio-Mamusi Rural LLG, East New Britain Province:

Lower dialect (in Bialla Rural LLG, West New Britain Province):
*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, 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