| Yele – West New Britain | |
| Acceptance: | proposed |
| Region: | New Britain & Rossel Island |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Family: | Proposed language family |
| Glotto: | none |
| Child1: | West New Britain |
| Child2: | ? Yélî Dnye |
Yele – West New Britain is a tentative language family proposal by Malcolm Ross that unites three languages: Anêm and Ata (Wasi) of western New Britain, and more dubiously Yélî Dnye (Yele) of Rossel Island. These were classified as East Papuan languages by Stephen Wurm, but this does not now seem tenable. While Anêm and Ata do appear to be related, Yele may turn out to be an Austronesian language.
The evidence for the Yele – West New Britain family comes from the pronouns. Each language has two distinct sets of pronouns, and both sets correspond across the three languages. The forms illustrated here are the free pronouns and subject prefixes of Anêm and Ata, and the free and possessive/prepositional pronouns of Yele. Anêm and Ata make a distinction between inclusive and exclusive we. Yele also has dual pronouns which aren't shown.
| Anêm | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| I | pronounced as /ue, a-/ | excl. | pronounced as /mɯn, mɯ-/ |
| incl. | pronounced as /miŋ, –/ | ||
| thou | pronounced as /nin, ni-/ | you | pronounced as /–, ŋɯ-/ |
| he | pronounced as /lɤxa, u-/ | they | pronounced as /–, i-/ |
| she | pronounced as /sɤxa, i-/ | ||
| Ata | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| I | pronounced as /eni, a-/ | excl. | pronounced as /neɣi, ta-/ |
| incl. | pronounced as /ŋeŋe, –/ | ||
| thou | pronounced as /nini, na-/ | you | pronounced as /ŋiŋi, ŋa-/ |
| he | pronounced as /anu, u-/ | they | pronounced as /aneʔi, i-/ |
| she | pronounced as /ani, i-/ | ||
| Yele | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | pronounced as /ɳə, a/ | we | pronounced as /ɳ͡mo, ɳ͡mɨ/ | |
| thou | pronounced as /ni/, pronounced as /N-/ | you | pronounced as /n͡mo, n͡me/ | |
| s/he | pronounced as /–, u/ | they | pronounced as /–, ji/ | |