| Upper Yuat | |
|---|---|
| Upper Yuat River | |
| Geographic distribution | UpperYuat River watershed,Papua New Guinea |
| Linguistic classification | Northeast New Guinea and/orTrans–New Guinea |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | None |
TheUpper Yuat languages consist of two smalllanguage families, namelyArafundi andPiawi, spoken in the region of the upperYuat River of New Guinea. The connection was first suggested byWilliam A. Foley[2] and confirmed by Timothy Usher, who further links them to theMadang languages.[1]
Upper Yuat languages display more typological similarities withTrans-New Guinea than the other neighboring language families of the Sepik-Ramu basin (namely theLower Sepik-Ramu andYuat families).[2] The Madang languages are frequently included in Trans–New Guinea classifications, but the connection is not yet demonstrated.
The Piawi languages are morphologically much simpler than the Arafundi languages.[2]
Foley (2018) lists the following linguistic varieties.[2]
Reconstructions of Proto-Upper Yuat personal pronoun are:[2]
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | *ni | *an ~ *aŋ |
| 2nd person | *na | *ne |
| 3rd person | *nu | |
Personal pronouns in individual languages are as follows:[2]
| Harway | Hagahai | Pinai | Lower Arafundi | Upper Arafundi | Awiakay | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1SG | nɨ-ɡə | ŋɨ-ɡə | nɨ-ɡa | ɲɨŋ | niŋ | niŋ | |
| 2SG | na-ɡo | na-ɣə | na-ɡa | nan | nan | nan | |
| 3SG | nu-ɡʷə | nə-ɣʷə | an | an | |||
| 1DU | as | as | as | ||||
| 2/3DU | nɨɲ | nen | neɲ | ||||
| 1PL | an-ɡə | an-ɡə | nanə-ɡa | aŋ | aŋ | ||
| 2/3PL | ɲɨ-ɡə | ɲe-ɡə | ɲi-ɡa | noŋ | noŋ | noŋ | |
3rd-person *nu (number uncertain) corresponds to Piawi 3 singular and Arafundi 2/3 plural, *ne to Piawi 2/3 plural and Arafundi 2/3 dual.
Upper Yuat languages typically have 7 vowels:[2]: 236
| i | ɨ | u |
| e | ə | o |
| a |