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| Upper Yuat | |
|---|---|
| Upper Yuat River | |
| Geographic distribution | Upper Yuat River watershed, Papua New Guinea |
| Linguistic classification | Northeast New Guinea and/or Trans–New Guinea |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | None |
The Upper Yuat languages consist of two small language families, namely Arafundi and Piawi, spoken in the region of the upper Yuat River of New Guinea. The connection was first suggested by William A. Foley[2] and confirmed by Timothy Usher, who further links them to the Madang languages.[1]
Upper Yuat languages display more typological similarities with Trans-New Guinea than the other neighboring language families of the Sepik-Ramu basin (namely the Lower Sepik-Ramu and Yuat families).[2] The Madang languages are frequently included in Trans–New Guinea classifications, but the connection is not yet demonstrated.
The Piawi languages are morphologically much simpler than the Arafundi languages.[2]
Foley (2018) lists the following linguistic varieties.[2]
Reconstructions of Proto-Upper Yuat personal pronoun are:[2]
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | *ni | *an ~ *aŋ |
| 2nd person | *na | *ne |
| 3rd person | *nu | |
Personal pronouns in individual languages are as follows:[2]
| Harway | Hagahai | Pinai | Lower Arafundi |
Upper Arafundi |
Awiakay | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1SG | nɨ-ɡə | ŋɨ-ɡə | nɨ-ɡa | ɲɨŋ | niŋ | niŋ | |
| 2SG | na-ɡo | na-ɣə | na-ɡa | nan | nan | nan | |
| 3SG | nu-ɡʷə | nə-ɣʷə | an | an | |||
| 1DU | as | as | as | ||||
| 2/3DU | nɨɲ | nen | neɲ | ||||
| 1PL | an-ɡə | an-ɡə | nanə-ɡa | aŋ | aŋ | ||
| 2/3PL | ɲɨ-ɡə | ɲe-ɡə | ɲi-ɡa | noŋ | noŋ | noŋ | |
3rd-person *nu (number uncertain) corresponds to Piawi 3 singular and Arafundi 2/3 plural, *ne to Piawi 2/3 plural and Arafundi 2/3 dual.
Upper Yuat languages typically have 7 vowels:[2]: 236
| i | ɨ | u |
| e | ə | o |
| a |