Grand Valley Dani language explained

Grand Valley Dani
States:	Indonesia
Region:	Highland Papua
Ethnicity:	Dani and Lani^[1]
Date:	1990–1996
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Papuan
Fam1:	Trans–New Guinea
Fam2:	West Trans–New Guinea
Fam3:	Irian Highlands ?
Fam4:	Dani languages
Fam5:	Dani proper
Lc1:	dni
Ld1:	Lower
Lc2:	dnt
Ld2:	Mid
Lc3:	dna
Ld3:	Upper
Lc4:	hap
Ld4:	Hupla
Glotto:	gran1246
Glottorefname:	Grand Valley Dani

Grand Valley Dani, or simply Dani,^[2] is one of the most populous Papuan languages in Indonesian New Guinea (also known as Papua). The Dani people live in the Baliem Valley of the Western Highlands.

Dialects

Dialectical differentiation is great enough that Ethnologue assigns separate codes to three varieties:

• Lower
• Mid or Central, also known as Tulem
• Upper

Lower Grand Valley Dani contains subdialects Lower Grand Valley Hitigima (Dani-Kurima, Kurima), Upper Bele, Lower Bele, Lower Kimbin (Kibin), and Upper Pyramid. Hupla, traditionally considered a separate language, is closer to Lower Grand Valley than the varieties of Grand Valley Dani are to each other.

Phonology

Grand Valley Dani has established its own orthography during a conference between linguists of the Dutch New Guinea government and different missionary bodies on February 1961. This is the phonology of the Central Grand Valley Dani language:

Consonants

! rowspan="2"

Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
plain			lab.
Nasal		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive		pronounced as /link/ ⟨b, p⟩	pronounced as /link/ ⟨d, t⟩		pronounced as /link/ ⟨g, k⟩	pronounced as /link/ ⟨gw, kw⟩	pronounced as /link/ ⟨'⟩
		pronounced as /link/ ⟨p, ph⟩	pronounced as /link/ ⟨t, th⟩		pronounced as /link/ ⟨k, kh⟩	pronounced as /link/ ⟨kw, kwh⟩
		pronounced as /link/ ⟨bp⟩	pronounced as /link/ ⟨dl⟩
Fricative			pronounced as /link/				pronounced as /link/
Lateral			pronounced as /link/
Semivowel				pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/

Unlike other orthographies of local languages in Indonesia (largely based on the standard orthography), the original Grand Valley Dani orthography (the current one might be not known) has j instead of y, in common with the Indonesian old spelling.

• The letters ⟨p, t, k⟩ are pronounced as aspirated /pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link// in word-initial position and as [{{IPA link|β}}, {{IPA link|ɾ}}, {{IPA link|ɣ}}] in intervocalic positions, respectively. They merge with voiceless /pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link// syllable-finally, which is also represented by graphic voiced consonants ⟨b, d, g⟩. However, aspirated consonants still occur intervocalically, see below.
• The phoneme pronounced as //h// merges with preceding or following phonemes:
  • It aspirates preceding ⟨p, t, k⟩, creating effectively phonemic aspirated consonants in intervocalic positions (japha pronounced as //japʰa// "they fought").
  • It also compensatorily lengthened adjacent vowel or sonorants (except pronounced as //j//, pronounced as //w//), however, one element of the most adjacent lengthened vowel to pronounced as //h// is devoiced (wamhe pronounced as //wamhe/, [wamm̥ɛ]/ "pig (with connective morpheme)").

Vowels

Vowels!!front!central!back

close	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
	pronounced as /link/ ⟨y⟩		pronounced as /link/ ⟨v⟩
mid	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
low		pronounced as /link/

Grammar

Verbs

Verbs in Grand Valley Dani are highly inflected for many tenses. Infinitive is marked by the suffix -in, although verb stems in -s- change to -t- before consonants: wetasin "to roast", but wetathy "I roasted".

Finite tenses

! colspan="2"

number
Singular	Plural
1st	-y	-o
	2nd	-en	-ep
	3rd	-e	-em

Although there are claimed "default" personal markers, the correspondences between tense suffixes and personal markers are often highly irregular. Nevertheless, inflections of verbs are still highly regular. Unless denoted in the table, verb forms are marked by personal markers.

List! Tense! Suffix(es)

Near future	-ikin in the singular, -ukun in the plural. Never inflected by person, only by number.
Indefinite future	-isikin in the singular, -isukun in the plural. Never inflected by person, only by number.
Near past	-h-.
Remote past	-hikh- in the, -hukh- in the, and -hVk- elsewhere. -V- is an echo vowel from the personal markers, e.g. -hyky, -heken, etc.
Perfect past	Suffixing the near past with -tik in the, -ttik in the, -sip in the and -sik elsewhere. In the second person, the final consonants of original near past endings, when suffixed, have to be deleted (-hen + -ttik → -hettik, -hep + -sip → -hesip). The ending for is irregular: -hasik instead of *-hemsik.
Habitual	Replacing every instances of syllable-final -i- and -sik (but not -sip → -sep) of the perfect past with -e- and -tek, respectively (-hettik → -hettek).
Habitual perfect	Infixing -si- into the main habitual ending (-hettek → -hettesik). The ending for is irregular: -hesep → -hetesip instead of *-hesesip.

		Singular			Plural
		First	Second	Third	First	Second	Third
Future	Near	-ikin			-ukun
	Indefinite	-isikin			-isukun
Past	Near	-hy	-hen	-he	-ho	-hep	-hem
	Remote	-hyky	-heken	-hikhe	-huku	-hikip	-hukha
	Perfect	-hytik	-hettik	-hesik	-hosik	-hesip	-hasik
Habitual	Main	-hytek	-hettek	-hetek	-hotek	-hesep	-hatek
	Perfect	-hytesik	-hettesik	-hetesik	-hotesik	-hetesip	-hatesik
Progressive		-hylahy	-hylaken	-iako	-hylako	-hylakep	-iakoei

Semantics

The Dani language differentiates only two basic colours, mili for cool/dark shades such as blue, green, and black, and mola for warm/light colours such as red, yellow, and white. This trait makes it an interesting field of research for language psychologists, such as Eleanor Rosch, investigating the Whorf hypothesis.^{[3] [4]}

Further reading

• Book: van der Stap, P.. Outline of Dani Morphology. Martinus Nijhoff. 1966. https://web.archive.org/web/20190215050459/http://papuaweb.org/dlib/bk1/kitlv/stap-1966.pdf. February 15, 2019.
• Book: Bromley, H. Myron. The Phonology of Lower Grand Valley Dani. Van Het Koninklijk Instituut Voor Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde. 1961. https://web.archive.org/web/20180508051128/http://papuaweb.org/dlib/bk1/kitlv/bromley-1961.pdf. May 8, 2018.

Notes and References

1. Tabuni . Gasper . Kunume Wene-Nya Masyarakat Adat Balim: Studi Kasus Makna ‘Kunume Wene’ dalam Perilaku Orang Kombarabuni dalam Jangkauan Zaman . Magister Studi Pembangunan Program Pascasarjana UKSW . 2017 . 2024-06-18.
2. Compare Lani
3. Book: Saunders, Barbara Ann Christine. The Invention of Basic Colour Terms. January 1, 1992. R.U.U.-I.S.O.R.. 9789051870879 . Google Books.
4. Probabilities, Sampling, and Ethnographic Method: The Case of Dani Colour Names. Heider, Eleanor Rosch. 1972. Man. 7. 3. 448–466. JSTOR. 10.2307/2800917. 2800917 .