Yam languages explained

Yam
Also Known As:	Morehead River
Region:	Morehead River watershed, New Guinea
Familycolor:	Papuan
Fam1:	A primary language family
Glotto:	more1255
Glottorefname:	Yam
Child1:	Yey
Child2:	Nambu
Child3:	Tonda
Map:	Morehead and Upper Maro River languages.svg
Mapcaption:	Map: The Yam languages of New Guinea

The Yam languages, also known as the Morehead River languages, are a family of Papuan languages. They include many of the languages south and west of the Fly River in Papua New Guinea and Indonesian West Papua.

Name

The name Morehead and Upper Maro River, or Morehead - Maro, refers to the area around the Morehead and Maro rivers. Most of the languages are found between these rivers, but the Nambu subgroup are spoken east of the Morehead. Evans (2012) refers to the family instead with the more compact name Yam. This name is motivated by a number of linguistic and cultural items of significance: yam (and cognates) means "custom, tradition"; yəm (and cognates) means "is"; and yam tubers are the local staple and of central cultural importance.

External relationships

Ross (2005) tentatively includes the Yam languages in the proposed Trans-Fly – Bulaka River family. More recently (Evans 2012) has argued that this is not justified and more data has to be gathered. Evans (2018) classifies the Pahoturi River languages as an independent language family.

Yam languages have also been in intensive contact with Marind and Suki speakers, who had historically expanded into Yam-speaking territories via headhunting raids and other expansionary migrations.

Classification

Internal classification of the Yam languages:^[1]

• Yei
• Tonda languages (a dialect chain)
• Nambu languages (a dialect chain)

Wichmann (2013) did not find a connection between the branches in his automated comparison.^[2]

Languages

Yam languages are spoken by up to 3,000 people on both sides of the border in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. In Papua New Guinea, Yam languages are spoken in Morehead Rural LLG, Western Province. In Papua, Indonesia, Yam languages are spoken in Merauke Regency.

Yam languages and respective demographic information listed by Evans (2018) are provided below.^[3] Geographical coordinates are also provided for some villages.^[4]

List of Yam languages! Language !! Alternative names !! Subgroup !! Speakers !! Villages or hamlets

	Tokwe, Upper Morehead, Thamnga		150	Ufarua (-8.6355°N 141.6332°W), Forzitho, Thamgakar (-8.6262°N 141.6111°W) in central Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Kamundjo, Upper Morehead, (Mema, Ranzér), Zókwasi, Farem		200	Rouku (-8.7018°N 141.5985°W), Gunana, Morehead (-8.7089°N 141.6346°W), Firra, Masu, Kanathér in central Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Tjokwe, Upper Morehead, Wära, Mät		350	Yokwa (-8.7005°N 141.5231°W), (Mäwsa, Kwaikér, Zäzér Ménz) in central Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Tokwe, Upper Morehead, Wórä		100	Tokwa (-8.6433°N 141.4361°W), Kanfok in central Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Upper Morehead		130	Wämnefér (-8.7414°N 141.4158°W) in central Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Kunja, Lower Morehead, Peremka, Kénzä		350*	Bondobol (-8.9295°N 141.3385°W), Bula (-9.1283°N 141.3405°W), Jarai (-9.1968°N 141.5844°W) in southeast Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Tonda, Renmo, Blafe		200*	Yéndorodoro (-8.592°N 141.2968°W), Mengete (-8.657°N 141.284°W) in west Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Blafe, Blafe Wonana, Tonda		350*	Weam (-8.6189°N 141.1347°W), Kandarisa (-8.6214°N 141.2194°W), Wereaver (-8.5966°N 141.1236°W) (only recently in Wereaver) in west Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Guntai, Kan		430	Wando (-8.8859°N 141.2585°W), Bensbach (-8.8493°N 141.2499°W), Balamuk, Korombo 1, Korombo 2 (-8.7542°N 141.2657°W) in mid southwest Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	None		750	Fwasam, Gowi, Kiriwa (-8.4375°N 141.5158°W), Meru (-8.472°N 141.4663°W), Sedefi (-8.5146°N 141.6107°W), Serki (-8.2507°N 141.766°W) in north central Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Ngar, Kanum, Sota		unknown	Vicinity of Sota in west Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
			10? (moribund or extinct)	Wereaver (-8.5966°N 141.1236°W) in west Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Smärki, Kanum, Barkari		150	Rawu Biru, Tomer, Tomerau, Yakiw in southeast Merauke Regency, Indonesia
	Smerki, Smärki, Kanum		120	Yanggandur (recently moved there) in southeast Merauke Regency, Indonesia
	Ngkontar, Ngkolmpu		100	Yanggandur in southeast Merauke Regency, Indonesia and into PNG
	Kiki, Ngkntra Kiki, Kanum, Enkelembu, Kenume, Knwne			east Merauke Regency, Indonesia and into PNG
	Kanum, Enkelembu, Kenume, Knwne		5 (moribund or extinct)	Onggaya in south central Merauke Regency, Indonesia
			1278	Po, Torai, Bupul, Tanas, Kwel in east Merauke Regency, Indonesia
			350	Bimadeben (-8.7018°N 141.5985°W) in central Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
			1200	Daraia (-8.6164°N 141.7336°W), Mata (-8.6745°N 141.7431°W), Ngaraita (-8.5995°N 141.7149°W) in central Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Mibini		170*	Mibini (-8.8388°N 141.6379°W) in central Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Nmbo, Keraki; Namna, Yarne		710	Nambo variety: Gubam (-8.6194°N 141.9225°W), Bebdeben (-8.6677°N 141.9258°W), Arufi (-8.7606°N 141.9137°W) in central Morehead Rural LLG, PNG; Namna variety: Pongarki (-8.6643°N 141.8271°W), Derideri (-8.6868°N 141.8562°W) in central Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
			200	Keru (-8.4838°N 141.7883°W), Mitere in central Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Ndre		1	Ramar in central Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Nä		374*	Tais (-9.1675°N 141.9057°W), Mari (-9.1935°N 141.7025°W) in south Morehead Rural LLG, PNG
	Lä		8–10	Now living in Tais (-9.1675°N 141.9057°W), original village was Yaoga in south Morehead Rural LLG, PNG

See also: Districts of Papua (Indonesian Wikipedia)

Pronouns

The pronouns Ross (2005) reconstructs for the family are,

Proto-Yam (Proto–Morehead – Upper Maro)

I/we	ni
you	bu
s/he/they	be

Typology

Many Yam languages display vowel harmony, including in Nambu and Tonda languages.^[3]

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from McElhanon & Voorhoeve (1970)^[5] and Voorhoeve (1975),^[6] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.^[7]

The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. tor, ter for “tooth”) or not (e.g. sento, yarmaker for “bird”).

gloss		Yei
head	mel	kilpel
hair	mel-kata	peab
eye	si	cur
tooth	tor	ter
leg	tegu	cere
louse	neːmpin	nim
dog	krar	jeu
pig	kwer	becek
bird	sento	yarmaker
egg	bel	mekur
blood	mbel	gul
bone	mbaːr	gor
skin	keikei	paːr
tree	per	per
man	ire	el-lu
sun	koŋko	mir
water	ataka	kao
fire	mens	benj
stone	melle	mejer
name	iu	ore
eat	anaŋ	cenye
one	namper	nampei
two	yempoka	yetapae

Further reading

• Carroll, Matthew J., Nicholas Evans, I Wayan Arka, Christian Döhler, Eri Kashima, Volker Gast, Tina Gregor, Julia Miller, Emil Mittag, Bruno Olsson, Dineke Schokkin, Jeff Siegel, Charlotte van Tongeren & Kyla Quinn. 2016. Yamfinder: Southern New Guinea Lexical Database.
• Döhler, Christian (2018) A grammar of Komnzo. (Studies in Diversity Linguistics 22). Berlin: Language Science Press. . . Accessed on 2019-11-12.
• Evans, Nicholas, I Wayan Arka, Matthew Carroll, Christian Döhler, Eri Kashima, Emil Mittag, Kyla Quinn, Jeff Siegel, Philip Tama & Charlotte van Tongeren. 2017. The languages of Southern New Guinea. In Bill Palmer (ed.), The languages and linguistics of the New Guinea area, 641–774. Berlin; Boston: Walter de Gruyter. . Accessed on 2019-11-12.
• Kaiping, Gereon A. & Edwards, Owen & Klamer, Marian (eds.). 2019. LexiRumah 2.2.3. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available online at https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/lexirumah/. Accessed on 2019-09-14.
• Greenhill et al., 2008. In: Kaiping, Gereon A. & Edwards, Owen & Klamer, Marian (eds.). 2019. LexiRumah 2.2.3. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available online at https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/lexirumah/. Accessed on 2019-09-14.

External links

• Yamfinder
• Morehead languages documentation project (DOBES)
• Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, East Morehead River (under construction 2020)
• (ibid.) West Morehead River (under construction 2020)

Notes and References

1. Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Morehead River
2. Wichmann, Søren. 2013. A classification of Papuan languages. In: Hammarström, Harald and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact and classification of Papuan languages (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, Special Issue 2012), 313-386. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
3. Book: Evans, Nicholas . Nicholas Evans (linguist) . Palmer . Bill . 2018 . The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide . The languages of Southern New Guinea . The World of Linguistics . 4 . Berlin . De Gruyter Mouton . 641–774 . 978-3-11-028642-7.
4. Web site: Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup . United Nations in Papua New Guinea . Humanitarian Data Exchange . 1.31.9 . 2018.
5. McElhanon, K.A. and Voorhoeve, C.L. The Trans-New Guinea Phylum: Explorations in deep-level genetic relationships. B-16, vi + 112 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1970.
6. Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975.
7. Web site: TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea . Greenhill . Simon . 2016 . 2020-11-05.