| Yapese | |
|---|---|
| Thiin nu Waqaab | |
| Native to | Federated States of Micronesia |
| Region | Island ofYap |
| Ethnicity | Yapese |
Native speakers | 5,130 (2005)[1] |
| Dialects | |
| Latin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | yap |
| ISO 639-3 | yap |
| Glottolog | yape1248 |
  Yapese | |
| Coordinates:9°34′N138°07′E / 9.56°N 138.12°E /9.56; 138.12 | |
Yapese is anAustronesian language in theOceanic branch spoken on theislands ofYap, in theFederated States of Micronesia. It has been difficult to classify the language further, but Yapese may prove to be one of theAdmiralty Islands languages.[2] The Yapese language refers to the language spoken specifically on theYap Main Islands, and does not include theChuukic languages spoken in the Yap Neighboring Islands:Ulithian,Woleaian, andSatawalese (and to an extent,Nguluwan).
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Written Yapese uses theLatin script. In Yapese spelling as practiced until the 1970s, the glottal stop was not written with an explicit character. A word-final glottal stop was represented by doubling the final vowel letter.Glottalization of consonants was represented with an apostrophe. In the 1970s an orthography was created which uses double vowel letters to represent long vowels; and because of the ambiguity that would occur if the glottal stop was not written, the glottal stop was written with the letterq. This new orthography using the letterq is not in universal use, but many works and maps about Yap write place names using the new q-orthography.
For example: before the introduction of the new 1970s orthography, the indigenous name of the Yap Main Islands was (and still is) spelledWaab, where the glottal stop is assumed to be between the double vowel letters. After the 1970s orthography, the name was then officially changed toWaqaab to differentiate between the twoa vowels (first one being a short vowel and the second one being a long vowel) before and after theq glottal stop.
The newer orthography was then taught in the public education system at the elementary levels; however, due to the differing preferences of spelling by the older and newer generations, it became hard to standardize Yapese spelling. Contemporarily,Waqaab is still spelled in the older spelling, as well as some other forms to compromise for the generational differences, e.g.Waqab andWaʼab.
A general rule developed organically over time especially when it came to the introduction of the more-widely accepted apostropheʼ as a glottal stop. If the glottal stop is between vowels or at the ending (or start) of a word with a vowel, then aq will be used; if the glottal stop is next to or between consonants, then an apostrophe may be used.
Apart from a couple grammatical forms which are V, syllables are CV or CVC.
Yapese is one of the relatively few languages in the world withejectivefricatives.[3] The Yapese ejective consonants are/pʼtʼkʼfʼθʼ/. There are also glottalized nasals/mˀnˀŋˀ/ and approximants/jˀwˀlˀ/.[4]: 30, 34–35
In the table below, eachphoneme is listed to the left of thegrapheme that represents it in Yapese orthography.
| Labial | Dental | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | plain | m⟨m⟩ | n⟨n⟩ | ŋ⟨ng⟩ | |||
| glottalized | mˀ⟨mʼ⟩ | nˀ⟨nʼ⟩ | ŋˀ⟨ngʼ⟩ | ||||
| Plosive | plain[a] | p⟨p⟩ | t⟨t⟩ | ʈ͡ʂ⟨ch⟩ | k⟨k⟩ | ʔ⟨q/ʼ⟩ | |
| ejective | pʼ⟨pʼ⟩ | tʼ⟨tʼ⟩ | kʼ⟨kʼ⟩ | ||||
| voiced[b] | β ~b⟨b⟩ | ð ~d⟨d⟩ | (ʐ ~ɖ͡ʐ⟨j⟩)[c] | ɣ ~g⟨g⟩ | |||
| Fricative | |||||||
| voiceless | f⟨f⟩ | θ⟨th⟩ | ʂ⟨s⟩ | (h⟨h⟩)[c] | |||
| ejective | fʼ⟨fʼ⟩ | θʼ⟨thʼ⟩ | |||||
| Approximant | plain | l⟨l⟩ | j⟨y⟩ | w⟨w⟩ | |||
| glottalized | lˀ⟨lʼ⟩ | jˀ⟨yʼ⟩[d] | wˀ⟨wʼ⟩[d][e] | ||||
| Trill | plain | ɽ͡r⟨r⟩ | |||||
Dental and retroflex consonants may be palatalized next to front vowels, central vowels, and/uuː/, but not/ææː/, though obstruents are less obviously palatalized.[4]: 41-43
In the table below, each phoneme is listed to the left of the grapheme that represents it in Yapese orthography.[4][5]: 33 Every vowel has avowel length distinction.
| Front | Central | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |
| Close | i⟨i⟩iː⟨ii⟩ | ʊ⟨u⟩ʊː⟨uu⟩ | |||
| Mid | ɛ⟨e⟩eː⟨ee⟩ | œ⟨ö⟩œː⟨oe⟩ | |||
| Open-mid | æ⟨ë⟩æː⟨ea⟩ | ɔ⟨o⟩ɔː⟨oo⟩ | |||
| Open | a⟨ä⟩aː⟨ae⟩ | ʌ⟨a⟩ɑː⟨aa⟩[a] | |||
Yapese makes use ofreduplication for several morphological functions, including derivingstative adjectives frominchoative adjectives, as in (1a–b), as well as to makediminutives of verbs, as in (2a-b):[4]: 112-114
(1) roow become.red roow become.red 'to become red' | ||
(2) toey chop toey chop 'to chop' |
Yapese distinguishes between threenumbers (singular, dual, and plural) and threepersons (first, second, and third), as well asclusivity in its personal pronouns.[4]: 134
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.EXCL | gaeg | gamow | gamaed |
| 1.INCL | gadow | gadaed | |
| 2 | guur | gimeew | gimeed |
| 3 | qiir | yow | yaed |
A Yapese Talking Dictionary was produced byLiving Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.
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