Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 2, 2026

Yalë language

The Yalë language, also known as Yadë, Nagatman, or Nagatiman, is spoken in northwestern Papua New Guinea. It may be related to the Kwomtari languages, but Palmer (2018) classifies it as a language isolate.

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Jul 2, 2026
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Yalë
Nagatman
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionSandaun Province
Native speakers
(600 cited 1991)1
Senu River or language isolate
  • Guriaso–Yale
    • Yalë
Language codes
ISO 639-3nce
Glottologyale1246
ELPYalë
Coordinates: 3°44′42″S 141°28′18″E / 3.744917°S 141.471593°E / -3.744917; 141.471593 (Nagatiman)

The Yalë language, also known as Yadë, Nagatman, or Nagatiman, is spoken in northwestern Papua New Guinea. It may be related to the Kwomtari languages, but Palmer (2018) classifies it as a language isolate.2

There were 600 speakers in 1991 and 30 monolinguals at an unrecorded date.1 Yalë is spoken in Nagatiman (3°44′42″S 141°28′18″E / 3.744917°S 141.471593°E / -3.744917; 141.471593 (Nagatiman)) and several other villages of Green River Rural LLG in Sandaun Province.34 Foley (2018) reports a total of six villages.5

Yalë is in extensive trade and contact with Busa, a likely language isolate spoken just to the south. Yalë has complex verbal inflection and SOV word order.5

Phonology

The linguist Aidan Aannested, in a work from 20206, gives the following phonology for Yadë (Yalë):

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m ⟨m⟩ n ⟨n⟩
Plosive Voiceless p ⟨p⟩ t ⟨t⟩ k ⟨k⟩
Voiced b ~ β ⟨b⟩ d ~ ɺ ⟨d/l⟩ ɡ ~ ɣ ⟨g⟩
Fricative ɸ ⟨f⟩ s ⟨s⟩ h ⟨h⟩
Affricate d͡ʑ ~ ʑ ⟨j⟩
Approximant w ⟨w⟩ j ⟨y⟩
  • "dd" is pronounced as a trilled /r(ː)/
  • See the source for more information regarding allophones- the ones listed are just the common occurrences.
Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i ⟨i⟩ u ⟨u⟩
Close-Mid e ⟨e⟩ o ⟨o⟩
Open-Mid ɛ ⟨ë/ɛ⟩
Open a ⟨a⟩
  • Each vowel has a wide range of possible realizations, most notably /u/, which has:
    • /y/, /ʉ/, /ʊ/, and /u̟/

Grammar

Verbs

Verbal conjugation affixes are:5

  • -d: generic marker
  • -t: transitive marker
  • -b: intransitive marker

Nouns

Most nouns are not pluralized, and only nouns with human or animate reference or with high local salience may be pluralized using the suffix -rɛ ~ -re:5

  • nɛba 'child' → nɛba-re /child-PL/ ‘children’
  • ama 'dog' → ama-re /dog-PL/ ‘dogs’
  • dife 'village' → dife-rɛ /village-PL/ ‘villages’

Other plural nouns are irregular:5

  • aya 'father' → aya-nino /father-PL/ ‘fathers’
  • mise ‘woman’ → one ‘women’

Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns are:5

Person Singular Plural
1st bo se ~ sebo
2nd ju so ~ sobo
3rd bu

Basic vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Conrad and Dye (1975),7 as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:8

gloss Yalë
head ʌsu
hair ʌsʌǏahuᵽa
ear ąhuǏuʔ
eye na:ba
nose yɛlu
tongue aǏižiʔ
louse mibaʔ
dog kaliʔ
pig gǏɛǏiʔ
bird pʋlɛʔ
egg kah
blood wi:nuʔ
bone ɛlɛ:b̶u
skin žib̶uʔ
breast ma:ba
tree ti:
woman mɩsɛʔ
water tuʔ
fire ahuʐiʔ
stone anɩziʔ
road, path ařʌgɛʔ
eat hiɛǏɛ
one žuwaʔ
two teǏɛʔ
Further reading

Further reading

  • Campbell, Carl and Jody Campbell. 1987. Yadë Grammar Essentials. Unpublished manuscript. Ukarumpa, PNG: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  • Campbell, Carl and Jody Campbell. 1990. Yadë (Nagatman) – English Dictionary. Unpublished manuscript. Ukarumpa, PNG: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  • Campbell, Carl and Jody Campbell. 1997. Yalë (Nagatman, Yadë) Phonology Essentials. Unpublished manuscript. Ukarumpa, PNG: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
References

References

  1. Yalë at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Palmer, Bill (2018). "Language families of the New Guinea Area". 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. 1–20. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  3. 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.
  4. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
  5. 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.
  6. Aannested, Aidan. (2020). "Towards a grammar of the Yale language: taking another look at archived field data". SIL International. https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/74/13/68/74136897596164130243049362044105596501/Yade_Grammar.pdf
  7. Conrad, R. and Dye, W. "Some Language Relationships in the Upper Sepik Region of Papua New Guinea". In Conrad, R., Dye, W., Thomson, N. and Bruce Jr., L. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 18. A-40:1-36. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. doi:10.15144/PL-A40.1
  8. Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
External links