Yele language

Yele
Yélî Dnye
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Louisiade Archipelago
Native speakers	(3,800 cited 1998)
Language family	Yele – West New Britain ? Yele
Language codes
ISO 639-3	yle
Glottolog	yele1255
ELP	Yele
Yele and the language families of the Solomon Islands.   Yele (lower left)

The Yele language, or Yélî Dnye, is the language of Rossel island, the easternmost island in the Louisiade Archipelago off the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea. There were some 4,000 speakers in 1998, comprising the entire ethnic population. For now it is best considered a language isolate, but it may turn out to be related to the Anêm and Ata language isolates of New Britain in a tentative Yele – West New Britain family. Typologically, however, it is more similar to the languages of southern New Guinea than to those of New Britain.

Yele is one of the better-known East Papuan languages. It has been studied extensively by cognitive linguists. It has an extensive set of spatial postpositions. Yele has eleven postpositions equivalent to English on; using different ones depending factors such as whether the object is on a table (horizontal), a wall (vertical), or atop a peak; whether or not it is attached to the surface; and whether it is solid or granular (distributed).

Phonology

Yele has a uniquely rich set of doubly articulated consonants. In nearly all the languages of the world which have them, these are labial–velar consonants—that is, they are pronounced simultaneously with the lips and the back of the tongue, such as a simultaneous p and k. Only Yele is known to contrast other doubly articulated positions: besides labial–velar, it has two distinct labial–alveolar positions (laminal/dental and apical/postalveolar), as illustrated below.

The two coronal articulations are (1) laminal/dental and slightly pre-alveolar, sometimes transcribed tʸ, nʸ, etc. (see denti-alveolar consonant), and (2) apical and slightly post-alveolar, sometimes transcribed ṭ, ṇ etc., ʈ, ɳ, etc., or simply t, n, etc.

Stops	Bilabial		Dental		Alveolar		Velar			Labial–Dental		Labial–Alveolar		Labial–velar
Plosive	paa	side	t̪aa	knife	t̠oo	tongue	kaa	spear		t̪͡pənə	lung	t̠͡pənə	horn	k͡pene	coconut bag
Prenasalized stop	mbee	carry	n̪d̪e	food	n̠d̠e	firewood	ŋɡaa	tree		n̪͡md̪͡boo	pulp	n̠͡md̠͡boo	many	ŋ͡mɡ͡bo	fog
Nasal	maa	road	n̪ii	juice	n̠aa	feast	ŋa	lease		n̪͡mo	bird	n̠͡mo	we	ŋ͡mo	breast

There are two other doubly articulated consonants, [l͡β] as in lvámê (a type of cane) and [j͡β̞]. The Yele w is labial–dental [β̞͡ð̞]. These doubly articulated consonants contrast with labialization (SIL 1992/2004). Many articulations may also be palatalized. Stops may be either pre- or (except perhaps for /p/) post-nasalized. The consonant inventory includes the following,

	Labial				Dental			Alveolar			Palatal		Velar			Labial-velar
	plain	lab.	pal.	lab. & pal.	plain	lab.	pal.	plain	lab.	pal.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	pal.
Nasal	m	mʷ	mʲ	mʷʲ	n̪	n̪͡m		n̠	n̠͡m	n̠ʲ			ŋ	ŋʷ	ŋʲ	ŋ͡m
Plosive	p	pʷ	pʲ	pʷʲ	t̪	t̪͡p	t̪ʲ	t̠	t̠͡p	t̠ʲ			k	kʷ	kʲ	k͡p
Fricative	β		βʲ										ɣ
Approximant	β̞͡ð̞				l	l͡β	lʲ				j	j͡β̞

It is not clear how many of the labial–velar and labial–alveolar consonants such as ŋ͡m may also be labialized or palatalized. Nor is it clear how many of these articulations occur prenasalized or with nasal release, but besides those noted above, the following are noted in SIL 1992/2004: /mbʷ, mbʷʲ, n̪d̪ʲ, t̠n̠ʲ, t̠͡pn̠͡mʲ, ŋkʷ, kŋʷ/.

The oral stops /p t̠ k/ (that is, apart from dental /t̪/) are voiced between vowels and when prenasalized. The (post-)alveolar is further reduced to an (apparently dental) flap [ɾ̪] between vowels. Some of the palatalized alveolar stops are pronounced as fricatives or affricates, such as [tɕ] (or perhaps [ɕ]) and [ndʑ] (or perhaps [ʑ]), but SIL (1992/2004) contradicts itself as to which these are.

Yele also has many vowels, an unusually large number of which occur nasalized:

	Front		Central		Back
	Oral	Nasal	Oral	Nasal	Oral	Nasal
Close	i	ĩ	ɨ		u	ũ
Near-close	e	ẽ?	ə	ə̃	o	õ?
Open-mid	ɛ	ɛ̃			ɔ	ɔ̃
(Near-)open	æ	æ̃?	ɐ	ã	ɑ	ɑ̃

(The distinction between open-mid and close-mid nasal vowels is rather unusual, and SIL (1992/2004) provides no examples of the close-mid vowels. They also fail to provide an example of æ̃.)

Vowels may occur long or short. SIL (1992/2004) interprets other vowel sequences as being separated by /j, w/ rather than as diphthongs.

Given that vowels may be long or short, Yele syllables may only be of the form vowel or consonant-vowel, and in the former case, apparently only /a/ or /u/.

Orthography

Orthography	â	a	á	d	é	e	ê	gh	i	î	k	l	m	n	ń	ng	o	ó	p	t	u	v	w	y
IPA	ɑ	a	æ	t̠	e	ɛ	ə	ɣ	i	ɨ	k	l	m	n̠	n̪	ŋ	ɔ	o	p	t̪	u	β	w̪	j

The multigraphs for complex consonants are not always transparent. The labial-velar and labial-alveolar consonants are written with the labial second: kp, dp, tp, ngm, nm, ńm, lv. Prenasalized /mp/ is written mb, but /nt̪/ and /ŋk/ are written nt and nk to distinguish them from nd /nt̠/ and ng /ŋ/. Prenasalized stops are written with an m when labial, including doubly articulated stops, as with md /n̠͡mt̠͡p/ or mg /ŋ͡mk͡p/, and with n otherwise. Nasal release is likewise written n or m, as in dny /t̠n̠ʲ/, kn /kŋ/, dm /t̠͡pn̠͡m/, km /k͡pŋ͡m/. Labialization is written w, and palatalization y, apart from ch for /tʲ/ and nj for /ntʲ/ (it is not clear if ch and nj are dental or (post-)alveolar).

Of the vowels, only a and u occur initially. Long vowels are written doubled, and nasal vowels with a preceding colon (:a for /ã/), except for short vowels after a nasal consonant (or a nasal release?), where vowel nasality is not contrastive.

Pronouns

Yele has two sets of pronouns: free and possessive. They are,

I	n̠ə a	we two	n̪o n̪i	we	n̠͡mo n̠͡mɨ
thou	n̪i [[nasal stop|N-]]	you two	t̠͡pũ t̠͡pɨ	you	n̪͡mo n̪͡me
s/he	– u	they		– ji

Sample text

Kiye w:ââ u pi Peetuuki, ka kwo, Doongê. Nê kuu. Daa a w:ââ. Nkal u w:ââ. Nkal ngê yinê kaa ngê. W:ââ dono. Pi yilî u te. U nuu u pi da tóó. Pi u lama daa tóó. M:iituwo Yidika, Mépé tp:oo mî kiye ngê. Daanté. Mépé dono ngê pyodo. Apê, W:ââ mbwámê nînê châpwo. Nkal ngê kwo, "Up:o" . W:ââ mî mbêpê wo, chii mênê. Mépé ngê w:ââ mbwámê mêdîpê châpwo. Awêde ka kwo, Doongê. Pi maa daa t:a. A danêmbum u dî.

"The savage dog is called "Peetuuki", and he lives at Doongê. It's nothing to do with me. It's not my dog. It's Nkal's dog. He raised it. It's a bad dog. It bites everyone. It doesn't like anyone. Recently it bit Mépé's son, Yidika. It really bit him hard. Mépé became very angry, and said, 'I'm going to kill that dog'. The dog ran away into the bush, so Mépé could not kill it. So now it's still there at Doongê, so there's not a safe road through there. That's the end of my story." (SIL 1992/2004)

References

• James E. Henderson, 1995. Phonology and grammar of Yele, Papua New Guinea. Pacific Linguistics B-112. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
• Peter Ladefoged & Ian Maddieson, 1996. The sounds of the world’s languages. Oxford: Blackwells. ISBN 0-631-19814-8
• Stephen C. Levinson, 2003. Space in Language and Cognition: Explorations in Cognitive Diversity. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-01196-5
• Phonology sketch from SIL, 1992/2004 [1]