• Source: Baliem Valley languages

The Dani or Baliem Valley languages are a family of clearly related Trans–New Guinea languages spoken by the Dani and related peoples in the Baliem Valley in the Highland Papua, Indonesia. Foley (2003) considers their Trans–New Guinea language group status to be established. They may be most closely related to the languages of Paniai Lakes, but this is not yet clear. Capell (1962) posited that their closest relatives were the Kwerba languages, which Ross (2005) rejects.




Languages


Larson (1977) divided the family into three branches based on lexicostatistics, and Nggem was later added as a fourth. The Ngalik languages are very poorly attested.




Phonemes


Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows. This is identical to the reconstruction of Bromley (1966-1967) apart from adding the rare consonants *pw, *mbw, and the possible additional vowel *ɐ.

And the diphthongs *ei, *ou, *ai, *au.




Pronouns


Ross (1995) reconstructs the independent pronouns and possessive/object prefixes of Central Dani as:




Vocabulary comparison


The following basic vocabulary words are from Bromley (1967) and Voorhoeve (1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. nakapak, ogobak, nokopak for “nose”) or not (e.g. natði, nemake, nabilikagen for “tongue”).




Evolution


Dani reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:
Grand Valley Dani language:

ap 'man' < *ambi
meli 'tongue' < *me(l,n)e
n-esi 'hair' < *iti[C] (n- is 1sg possessor)
me(m) 'come' < *me-
ket 'new' < *kVndak
Western Dani language:

ap 'man' < *ambi
(n)iti < *iti[C]
meli 'tongue' < *me(l,n)e
get 'new' < *kVndak
okut 'leg' < *k(a,o)ndok[V]
kat(lo) 'skin' < *(ŋg,k)a(nd,t)apu
idu 'tree' < *inda
Ngalik language:

idu(k)etu 'tree' < *inda
(nak) amu 'breast' < *amu
tokon 'full' < *tVkV[ti]
kopu 'smoke' < *kambu




References

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Bahasa Yali
• Baliem Valley languages
• Baliem Valley
• Dani people
• Grand Valley Dani language
• Western Dani language
• Yali language
• Nduga people
• Yali people
• Koteka
• Lani people