Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea

Yagaria

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Dialects

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Yagaria consists of eight main dialects.

Dialect Name Number of speakers
Dagenava 373
Move 4,519
Kamate 2,369
Ologuti 2,165
Gotomi 2,032
Kani-Kuluka 4,469
Hira 2,318
Huva 2,871

Phonology[1]

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Phonemes

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Consonants[2]

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  • /p/ - Voiceless, bilabial, unaspirated stop
  • /b/ - Voiced, bilabial stop
  • /t/ - Voiceless alveolar unaspirated stop
  • /d/ - Voiced alveolar stop
  • /k/ - Voiceless velar unaspirated stop
  • /g/ - Velar consonant
  • /ʔ/ - Voiceless glottal stop
  • /f/ - Voiceless fricative consonant
  • /v/ - Voiced fricative consonant
  • /h/ - Voiceless glottal fricative
  • /s/ - Voiceless alveolar grooved fricative
  • /m/ - Voiced bilabial nasal
  • /n/ - Voiced alveolar nasal
  • /l̩/ -Voiced velar lateral
  • /y/ - Voiced alveolar-alveopalatal

Vowels

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  • /i/ - Voiced high close unrounded front vocoid occurring word initially, medially, and finally
  • /ɛ/ - Voiced mid open unrounded front vocoid gliding to high close unrounded front, occurring word initially, medially, and finally
  • / / - Voiced mid open unrounded front vocoid gliding to high close unrounded front, occurring word initially, medially, and finally
  • /u/ - Voiced high close rounded back vocoid occurring word initially, medially, and finally
  • /o/ - Voiced mid close rounded back vocoid occurring word initially, medially, and finally

Distribution of Phonemes

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There are four syllable patterns used in the Yagaria language. The four are V, CV, CVC, and VC where CV is the most used.

Morphology

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Pronouns[3]

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Personal, Possessive, Emphatic, and Interrogative pronouns are used. Personal and Possessive pronouns happens in free word and affixed forms. Emphatic pronoun occurs in suffixes.

Singular
POV Subject (Yagaria) Subject (English)
1 dagaea I
2 gagaea you
3 agaea he/she
Dual
POV Subject (Yagaria) Subject (English)
1 la'agaea we
2 latagaea you
3 tagaea they
Plural
POV Subject (Yagaria) Subject (English)
1 lagaea we
2 lapagaea you
3 pagaea they
Short Forms Open/Closed
Personal Pronouns POV Open Closed English
Singular 1 dagae dagae' I
2 gagae gagae' you
3 agae agae' he/she
Dual 1 la'agae la'agae' we
2 latagae latagae' you
3 tagae tagae' they
Plural 1 lagae lagae' we
2 lapagae lapagae' you
3 pagae pagae' they

The main noun classes used in the Yagaria language are Class 1 and Class 2.

Class 1

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Nouns can indicate living and non living objects. They occur in two forms, long form where carrying suffix -na, and short form where the suffix is removed and ends with a glottal stop. Long form are used less and mostly for citation, some as a subject, and mostly used in intransitive clauses.

Long Form Short Form Translation
ana a' women
yona yo' house
yana ya' taro
gokolena gokole' chicken

Examples of using Long forms

Yagaria ba yana ege gilena
Breakdown sweet potato taro banana corn
Translation sweet potato taro banana corn
Yagaria ana hoya no' - eli-e
Breakdown woman work PROG-do- IND
Translation the woman is working

Long forms as an object:

Yagaria ve agaea ana eli- d- i- e
Breakdown man he woman take-PAST-3.SG-IND
Translation the man took the woman

Short forms as subject in intransitive clause and as an object:

Yagaria faya' ni- pi' bei- d- i- e
Breakdown fish water-IN live-PAST-3.SG-IND
Translation there are fish in the water
Yagaria yale pagaea yo' gi- d- a- e
Breakdown people they house build-PAST-3.PL-IND
Translation the people built a house

Class 2

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Class 2 nouns have some ending in -na, and is never omitted. Suffixation happens after that syllable.

Examples:

Yagaria bina
Translation price
Yagaria bina- 'a
Breakdown price-ita
Translation its price

Class 2 nouns that behave somewhat like class 1 nouns.They carry suffix -'na, has short form without ending in a glottal stop. All suffixation occurs with long form carrying the suffix -'na.

Examples:

Yagaria dote'na
Translation food
Yagaria dote' yava laga- 'a
Breakdown eible tree fruit-its
Translation edible tree-fruit
Yagaria dote'na-ka no- k- am- u- e
Breakdown food- your PROG-you-give-1.SG-IND
Translation I am giving you your food
Yagaria filite'na
Translation death
Yagaria filite' yale
Breakdown dead people
Translation dead people
Yagaria filite'na- e' l - amota no'- ei-e
Breakdown death- BEN us- fear IND
Translation we are afraid of death
Yagaria nalu-di
Breakdown wife-my
Translation my wife
Yagaria da-nalu-di
Breakdown my-wife-my
Translation my wife

Adjectives[5]

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Primary and Secondary Adjectives are used in the Yagaria Language. Primary adjectives are used to determine the morphological behaviorist of "adjectives". Secondary adjectives are obtained from nouns or verbs, or local or temporal expressions occurring as noun adjuncts.

Primary adjectives

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Morphological pattern of class 1 nouns, and class 2 nouns are the two groups being used in the primary adjectives. Most adjectives have short or not-suffixed form for attributive occurrence, and long or suffixed form for predicative occurrence.

Class 1 Examples:

Adjectives following Class 1 Translation
haga'. / hagana tasty
fagi' / faina far
fate' / fatena far
havá' / havána unimportant
lava' / lavana unimportant
lakoli' / lakolina flat
bonu' / bouna round
legi' / legina true
havu' / havuna unoltivated

Class 2 Examples:

Adjectives following Class 1 Translation
soko / sokona good
feipa / feipana bad
buko / bukona warm
gata / gatana heavy
hogo / hogona short
hepa / hepana bad
fotogo / fotogona good

Numerals[6]

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Numbers are made using a system of only one, two, and fives. The sum of numbers are usually expressed by hands and feet.

Number Count in Yagaria Number Count in English
bogo one
lole two
lole-'e' bogo-'e' three
lole-'e' lole-'e' four
d- anita bogo-ko' five
d- anita bogo-kayagati' bogo-ko' six
d- anita bogo-kayagati' lole seven
d- anita bogo-kaygati' lole-'e' bogo-'e' eight
d- anita bogo-kayagati' lole-'e' lole-'e' nine
d- anita lole ten
d- anita su ho- na d- eiya -logati' bogo eleven
d- anita su ho- na d- eiya -logati' lole twelve
d- anita su ho- na d- eiya -logati' lole-'e' bogo-'e' thirteen
d- anita su ho- na d- eiya -logati' lole-'e' lole-'e' fourteen
d- anita su ho- na d- eiya bogo-kayaga'a fifteen
d- anita su ho- na d- eiya bogo-kayagati' bogo-ko' sixteen
d- anita su ho- na d- eiya bogo-kayagati' lole seventeen
d- anita su ho- na d- eiya bogo-kayagati' lole-'e' bogo-'e' eighteen
d- anita su ho- na d- eiya bogo-kayagati' lole-'e' lole-'e' nineteen
d- eiya d- anita buki'a twenty

Reference

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  1. ^ Renck, G.L. (1975). A grammar of Yagaria (Pacific Linguistics. Series B; no. 40). Canberra: Dept. of Linguisctics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National Universit.
  2. ^ Renck, G.L. (1975). A grammar of Yagaria (Pacific Linguistics. Series B; no. 40). Canberra: Dept. of Linguisctics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National Universit. pp. (7-10).
  3. ^ Renck, G.L. (1975). A grammar of Yagaria (Pacific Linguistics. Series B; no. 40). Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. pp. (15-18).
  4. ^ Renck, G.L. (1975). A grammar of Yagaria (Pacific Linguistics. Series B; no. 40). Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. pp. (26-29).
  5. ^ Renck, G.L. (1975). A grammar of Yagaria (Pacific Linguistics. Series B; no. 40). Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. pp. (54-59).
  6. ^ Renck, G.L. (1975). A grammar of Yagaria (Pacific Linguistics. Series B; no. 40). Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. pp. (72-74).