Yessan-Mayo language

(Redirected from ISO 639:yss)

Yessan-Mayo (also known as Yesan, Mayo, and natively known as Yamano[1]) is a Papuan language spoken by 2000 people in Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in Maio (4°12′50″S 142°40′33″E / 4.21379°S 142.675929°E / -4.21379; 142.675929 (Maio)) and Yessan (4°13′08″S 142°40′00″E / 4.219025°S 142.66658°E / -4.219025; 142.66658 (Yessan)) villages of Yessan ward, Ambunti Rural LLG, East Sepik Province.[2][3]

Yessan-Mayo
Yamano
RegionEast Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea
Native speakers
2,000 (2000 census)[1]
Sepik
Language codes
ISO 639-3yss
Glottologyess1239
ELPYessan-Mayo

Phonology

edit

The phonology of Yessan-Mayo is described in Foley (2018)[4] as such:

Vowels

edit
Front Central Back
Close ɨ
Mid ə ɔ
Open a

Consonants

edit
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain labialized
Plosive plain t k
prenasalized ᵐb ⁿd ᵑg ᵑgʷ
Fricative ɸ s h
Nasal m n
Trill r
Approximant l j w

Pronouns

edit

Foreman (1974)[5] 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

edit
singular dual plural
1st person an nis nim
2nd person ni kep kom
3rd person male ri rip rim
female ti

Emphatic

edit
singular dual plural
1st person arin nisis nirim
2nd person nirin kerip kerim
3rd person male atar atep atem
female atat
edit

References

edit
  1. ^ a b Yessan-Mayo at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)  
  2. ^ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
  3. ^ United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
  4. ^ Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  5. ^ Foreman, Velma (1974). Grammar of Yessan-Mayo. Santa Ana, California: Summer Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 0883122049 – via Internet Archive.