Yagaria is a Papuan language spoken in the Goroka District of Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. Named dialects are Kami-Kulaka, Move, Ologuti, Dagenava, Kamate, Hira, Hua (Huva) and Kotom. Yagaria has a total number of 21,116 speakers.

Yagaria
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionYagaria Rural LLG, Goroka District, Eastern Highlands Province
Native speakers
38,000 (2000)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3ygr
Glottologyaga1260

History and culture

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The Yagaria people live in low areas about 1,400 meters (4,500 ft.) above sea level with a warm and dry climate around Kami and Gotomi. They practice substance agriculture and live in small hamlets where their population is barely 400 people for each clan. They harvest and plant sweet potatoes, taro, yams, sugarcane, bananas, beans, "pitpit", and different types of spinach. They domesticated pigs, dogs, and chickens. Their diets are usually sweet potatoes, marsupials and birds. When coffee plantations were introduced in the late fifties, cash profit changed most of the Yagaria lifestyle. Now rice, tinned meats and fish, and other food items are easy to find in their stores. Men wear European clothes while most women still wear traditional clothing.[2]

Dialects

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Yagaria consists of eight main dialects.[2]

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

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Vowels

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Yagaria vowels
Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid ɛ o
Open a ɑ
Diphthong /ɛi, ou, ɑɛ, ɑo/
  • /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
  • / / - Voiced mid close rounded back vocoid gliding to high close rounded back, occurring word initially, medially, and finally
  • /a/ - Voiced low open unrounded central vocoid occurring word initially, medially, and finally
  • / / - Voiced unrounded central-front
  • / / - Voiced central-back[2]

Consonants

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Yagaria consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop voiceless p t k ʔ
voiced b d g
Nasal m n
Fricative v s h
Continuant j ʟ

Distribution of Phonemes

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The syllable structure used in the Yagaria language is (C)V(ʔ). The four syllable patterns are V, CV, CVʔ, and Vʔ where CV is the most used.[3]


Morphology

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Pronouns

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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.[4]

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

Nouns

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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 nouns 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

ba

sweet potato

yana

taro

ege

banana

gilena

corn

ba yana ege gilena

{sweet potato} taro banana corn

sweet potato taro banana corn

ana

woman

hoya

work

no'-eli-e

PROG-do-IND

ana hoya no'-eli-e

woman work PROG-do-IND

the woman is working

Long forms as an object:

ve

man

agaea

he

ana

woman

eli-d-i-e

take-PAST-3.SG-IND

ve agaea ana eli-d-i-e

man he woman take-PAST-3.SG-IND

the man took the woman

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

faya'

fish

ni-pi'

water-IN

bei-d-i-e

live-PAST-3.SG-IND

faya' ni-pi' bei-d-i-e

fish water-IN live-PAST-3.SG-IND

there are fish in the water

yale

people

pagaea

they

yo'

house

gi-d-a-e

build-PAST-3.PL-IND

yale pagaea yo' gi-d-a-e

people they house build-PAST-3.PL-IND

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:

bina

bina

price

bina-'a

price-ita

bina-'a

price-ita

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:

dote'na

dote'na

food

dote'

edible

yava

tree

laga-'a

fruit-its

dote' yava laga-'a

edible tree fruit-its

edible tree-fruit

dote'na-ka

food-your

no-k-am-u-e

PROG-you-give-1.SG-IND

dote'na-ka no-k-am-u-e

food-your PROG-you-give-1.SG-IND

I am giving you your food

filite'na

filite'na

death

filite'

dead

yale

people

filite' yale

dead people

dead people

filite'na-e'

death-BEN

l-amota

us-fear

no'-ei-e

IND

filite'na-e' l-amota no'-ei-e

death-BEN us-fear IND

we are afraid of death

nalu-di

wife-my

nalu-di

wife-my

my wife

da-nalu-di

my-wife-my

da-nalu-di

my-wife-my

my wife

Adjectives

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Yagaria has a distinction between primary and secondary adjectives. Primary adjectives are used to determine the morphological behavior of "adjectives". Secondary adjectives are obtained from nouns or verbs, or local or temporal expressions occurring as noun adjuncts.[2]

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 uncultivated


Class 2 examples
Adjectives following Class 2 Translation
soko / sokona good
feipa / feipana bad
buko / bukona warm
gata / gatana heavy
hogo / hogona short
hepa / hepana bad
fotogo / fotogona good

Numerals

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

References

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  1. ^ Yagaria at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)  
  2. ^ a b c d Renck (1975), pp. 1–2
  3. ^ Renck (1975), pp. 12
  4. ^ Renck (1975), pp. 15–18
  • Renck, G.L. (1975). A Grammar of Yagaria (PDF). Pacific Linguistics Series B No. 40. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. doi:10.15144/pl-b40. hdl:1885/145156. ISBN 9780858831308.
  • Renck, G.L. (1977). Yagaria Dictionary, With English Index (PDF). Pacific Linguistics Series C - No. 37. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. doi:10.15144/pl-c37. hdl:1885/146588. ISBN 9780858831612.

Further reading

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  • Haiman, John (1980). Hua: A Papuan Language of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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