| Ata | |
|---|---|
| Pele-Ata | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | New Britain |
Native speakers | 2,000 (2007)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ata |
| Glottolog | pele1245 |
| ELP | Pele-Ata |
TheAta language, also known asPele-Ata after its two dialects, orWasi, is aPapuan language spoken onNew Britain island,Papua New Guinea. It appears to be related to neighboringAnêm, and possibly also toYélî Dnye in a proposedYele-West New Britain family. There are about 2000 speakers.
Ata is spoken inWest Pomio-Mamusi Rural LLG,East New Britain Province, and inTalasea District,West New Britain Province.[2]
According to Yanagida (2004), there are two dialects of Ata, aLower dialect spoken in the lowlands and anUpper dialect spoken in the mountains.[3] The Lower dialect is spoken inBialla Rural LLG,West New Britain Province, while the Upper dialect is spoken mostly inWest Pomio-Mamusi Rural LLG,East New Britain Province:[4]
Lower dialect (inBialla Rural LLG,West New Britain Province):
Upper dialect (inWest Pomio-Mamusi Rural LLG,East New Britain Province, unless noted otherwise):
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.[3]: 71
| gloss | Upper Ata | Lower Ata |
|---|---|---|
| rain | uali | laʔiua |
| sweet potato | totoʔo | kelatu |
| cassava | mio | mio, mioxa |
| throw something | paxele | pei |
| yes | iou | ani |
| the day before yesterday | malakaumei | malaʔo |
| 2nd person dual independent pronoun | ngolou | ngongou |
| 3rd person dual independent pronoun | olou | ilou |
Phonology of the Ata language:[5]
| Labial | Alveolar | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |
| Plosive | p | t | k | ʔ |
| Fricative | β | s | x | |
| Approximant | l |
/s/ is pronounced as alveolo-palatal [ɕ] before /i/, /x/ is voiced as [ɣ] when occurring intervocalically.
A word-initial /i/ is realized as a [j], and a word-initial /u/ becomes a [w] when preceding /o/ or /ɑ/.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | iiː | uuː |
| Mid | ɛɛː | ooː |
| Low | ɑɑː | |
Ata makes use of noun classes, some of which are:[6]: 792
Below are some Ata noun class paradigms, using the noun rootslavo’o ‘stone’ andlexe ‘song’ as examples:[6]: 792
| root | lavo’o | /stone/ | ‘stone’ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | lavo'o-silo | /stone-my/ | ‘my stone to be used for a house’ |
| Class 2 | lavo'o-xeni | /stone-my/ | ‘my stone to be used for breaking nuts’ |
| Class 3 | lavo'o-xo | /stone-my/ | ‘my stone for a stone oven’ |
| root | lexe | /song/ | ‘song’ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | lexe-silo | /song-my/ | ‘a song to be sung for me’ |
| Class 2 | lexe-xeni | /song-my/ | ‘the song I sing’ |
| Class 3 | lexe-xo | /song-my/ | ‘the song about me’ |
Selected basic vocabulary items in Ata:[7]
| gloss | Ata |
|---|---|
| bird | ngiala |
| blood | sialuxu |
| bone | xine |
| breast | susu |
| ear | sangalie |
| eat | ’ie |
| egg | atolu |
| eye | iei |
| fire | navu |
| give | iti; losie |
| go | lai |
| ground | lia |
| leg | tava'a |
| louse | meni |
| man | aliko |
| moon | so'io |
| name | uala |
| one | vile |
| road, path | vote'i |
| see | maisou |
| sky | loxotolo |
| stone | lavo'o |
| sun | aso |
| tongue | levexe |
| teeth | anaxu ilaanu (anaxu = 'mouth') |
| tree | aiinu; ovu |
| two | tamei |
| water | lexa |
| woman | sema |