Yessan-Mayo (also known as Yesan, Mayo, and natively known as Yamano[1]) is a Papuan language spoken by 2000 people in Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in Maio (4°12′50″S 142°40′33″E / 4.21379°S 142.675929°E) and Yessan (4°13′08″S 142°40′00″E / 4.219025°S 142.66658°E) villages of Yessan ward, Ambunti Rural LLG, East Sepik Province.[2][3]
| Yessan-Mayo | |
|---|---|
| Yamano | |
| Region | East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea |
Native speakers | 2,000 (2000 census)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | yss |
| Glottolog | yess1239 |
| ELP | Yessan-Mayo |
Phonology edit
The phonology of Yessan-Mayo is described in Foley (2018)[4] as such:
Vowels edit
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | ɨ | ||
| Mid | ə | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
Consonants edit
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labialized | ||||||
| Plosive | plain | t | k | kʷ | |||
| prenasalized | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑg | ᵑgʷ | |||
| Fricative | ɸ | s | h | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||
Pronouns edit
Foreman (1974)[5] describes two kinds of pronouns in Yessan-Mayo: non-emphatic and emphatic pronouns.
In addition to the non-emphatic pronouns, there is also the reflexive pronoun kwarara (self), as well as the demonstrative pronouns op (this) and otop (that).
Non-emphatic edit
| singular | dual | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | an | nis | nim | |
| 2nd person | ni | kep | kom | |
| 3rd person | male | ri | rip | rim |
| female | ti | |||
Emphatic edit
| singular | dual | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | arin | nisis | nirim | |
| 2nd person | nirin | kerip | kerim | |
| 3rd person | male | atar | atep | atem |
| female | atat | |||
External links edit
- Paradisec has a collection of Don Laycock's (DL2) that includes Yessan-Mayo language materials.
References edit
- ^ a b Yessan-Mayo at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
- ^ United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
- ^ Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- ^ Foreman, Velma (1974). Grammar of Yessan-Mayo. Santa Ana, California: Summer Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 0883122049 – via Internet Archive.
