| Yawan | |
|---|---|
| Yapen | |
| Geographic distribution | centralYapen Island,Cenderawasih Bay |
| Linguistic classification | West Papuan or independentlanguage family
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | yawa1259 |
 | |
TheYawa languages, also known asYapen languages,[1] are a small family of two closely relatedPapuan languages,Yawa (or Yava) andSaweru. Due to their strong similarity, they are sometimes considered to be divergent dialects of a single language – in which case, that language would be anisolate.
They are spoken on centralYapen Island and nearby islets, inCenderawasih Bay,Indonesian Papua, which they share with the AustronesianYapen languages.
Yawa proper had 6000 speakers in 1987. Saweru has been variously reported: 1/ to be partially intelligible with other dialects of Yawa and to be considered a dialect of Yawa by its speakers, or 2/ to be too divergent for intelligibility and to be perceived as a separate language. Saweru ismoribund, being spoken by 150 people out of an ethnic group of 300.
LinguistC. L. Voorhoeve tentatively linked Yawa with theEast Geelvink Bay languages in his Geelvink Bay proposal. However, the relationship would be a distant one at best, and Mark Donohue felt in 2001 that Yawa had not been shown to be related to any other language. Reesink (2005) notes resemblances withEast Bird's Head languages.[2] RecentlyMalcolm Ross made a tentative proposal that Yawa might be part of anExtended West Papuan language phylum. The pronominal resemblances are most apparent when comparing proto-Yawa to theEast Bird's Head languageMeax:
| I | thou | s/he | you | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proto-Yawa | *rei | *uein | *wepi | *waya |
| Meax | didif | bua | ofa | iwa |
d~r, b~w, we~o, p~f are all common sound correspondences.
Ethnologue (2009, 2013) takes this a step further, and placed Yawa withinWest Papuan itself.
Foley (2018) classifies Yawa separately as an independent language family.[1]
Yawa languages aresplit intransitive languages, which are typologically highly uncommon in New Guinea.[1]
Unlike theSepik languages,Taiap, and other languages of northern New Guinea, masculine rather than feminine is the unmarked gender, whereas Taiap and the Sepik languages treat feminine as the default unmarked gender. In Yawa languages, feminine is delegated mostly for animate nouns with obvious female sexual characteristics.[1]
Basic vocabulary of the Yapen languagesYawa andSaweru listed inFoley (2018). The pairs are not necessarily cognate.[1] This sample suggests that the linguistic distance between the two languages is in fact greater than the typical distance between two dialects of a same language.
| gloss | Yawa | Saweru |
|---|---|---|
| 'bird' | insani/ani | aani |
| 'blood' | mavu | maandi |
| 'bone' | pae | yai(yae) |
| 'breast' | ukam | inawam |
| 'ear' | amarikoam | nama(komu) |
| 'eat' | raiʃ | andai |
| 'egg' | kami | aanimpenam |
| 'eye' | ami | name |
| 'fire' | tanam | naona |
| 'go' | poto | ta |
| 'ground' | kakopa | kakofa |
| 'hair' | akarivuiny | neyaribiri |
| 'hear' | ranaun | nau |
| 'leg' | ajo | inayo |
| 'louse' | eme | emo |
| 'man' | anya | rama |
| 'moon' | embae | emba |
| 'name' | tame | inatama |
| 'one' | ntabo | baintawe |
| 'path, road' | unandi | nar |
| 'see' | raen | eni |
| 'stone' | oraman | toman |
| 'sun' | uma | uma |
| 'tongue' | aunan | nawanana |
| 'tooth' | atomokan | natu |
| 'tree' | nyoe mot | nawao |
| 'two' | jirum,rurum | wai dinu |
| 'water' | mana | manaa |
| 'woman' | wanya | ruama |
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),[3] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[4]
| gloss | Yawa |
|---|---|
| head | akari |
| hair | bwin |
| eye | nami |
| tooth | atu |
| leg | najo |
| louse | eme |
| dog | make |
| pig | bugwe |
| bird | insane |
| egg | kami |
| blood | madi |
| bone | pae |
| skin | kea |
| tree | nyo |
| man | ana |
| sun | uma |
| water | karu (?) |
| fire | tanam |
| stone | oram |
| name | tam |
| eat | rais |
| one | utabo |
| two | jiru |