Yagaria language

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.

History and culture

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

Yagaria consists of eight main dialects.^[2]

Phonology

Vowels

/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
/ $\varepsilon ^{i}$ / - 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
/ $o^{u}$ / - 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
/ $a^{\varepsilon }$ / - Voiced unrounded central-front
/ $a^{o}$ / - Voiced central-back^[2]

Consonants

Distribution of Phonemes

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

Pronouns

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]

Nouns

The main noun classes used in the Yagaria language are Class 1 and Class 2.

Class 1

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.

Examples of using Long forms

sweet potato

yana

taro

ege

banana

gilena

corn

sweet potato taro banana corn

ana

woman

hoya

work

no'-eli-e

PROG-do-IND

the woman is working

Long forms as an object:

man

agaea

ana

woman

eli-d-i-e

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

there are fish in the water

yale

people

pagaea

they

yo'

house

gi-d-a-e

build-PAST-3.PL-IND

the people built a house

Class 2

Class 2 nouns have some ending in -na, and is never omitted. Suffixation happens after that syllable.

Examples:

bina

price

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

food

dote'

edible

yava

tree

laga-'a

fruit-its

edible tree-fruit

dote'na-ka

food-your

no-k-am-u-e

PROG-you-give-1.SG-IND

I am giving you your food

filite'na

death

filite'

dead

yale

people

dead people

filite'na-e'

death-BEN

l-amota

us-fear

no'-ei-e

IND

we are afraid of death

nalu-di

wife-my

my wife

da-nalu-di

my-wife-my

my wife

Adjectives

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

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.

Numerals

Numbers are made using a system of only one, two, and fives. The sum of numbers are usually expressed by hands and feet.

References

^ Yagaria at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ a b c d Renck (1975), pp. 1–2
^ Renck (1975), pp. 12
^ 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.

External links

Paradisec has a number of collections that include Yagaria language materials.