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raqy aa Yaweyuha Pbononos. a Deniae Potts, Dorothy James and Ellis Deibler 1. Introduction 2. Chart of Phonemos 3+ Contrasts 4. Description - variants 5» Distribution 6. Orthography» le, Introduction This paper describes the phoneme system of the Yawoyuha Language of the Ugsei census division of the Goroke sud-district of the Bastern Highlands District of Papua New Guinea. There are approximately 2000 sposkers of Yeweyuha, Wurml961 includes Yaweyuba in the Siane Sub-Family of the Gende - Siane ~ Gahuku ~ Kamano ~ Fore Family of the Bast New Guinea Highlands stock, but gives Yaweyuha a major separation from the rest of Siane. This paper is based on data gathered at Ukarumpa, Papua Nev wri e euseQidee oe Sok Guinea during June, July and August, 1974, The corpus of data includes a word list of approximately 750 words plus over 50 short stories prepared by Donney Belalo, 18 years of age, and Phillip Wanopa, 19 years of age, both residents of Apoeto village. a anat uprary Y 1575 SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS, UKARUMPA, E.H.D. PAPUA NEW GUINEA, 2. Charts: of Phonenes. Sonsonants Stops-voiceless voiced Affricated—voiceless voiced. Nesale Lateral ‘Somi~consonants Vowels Higher Lower Tone Rising v Labial Front Post- dental t a ep wo 4 Central Post-palatal x & Yaweyuha Phonemes page 3 3- Contrasts Bele Consonants. rho t/a k/e/e K/e k/a tree tyse (ironwood) hair sweet potato (generic) cane village wallaby his heart frog grass type spear his wife come out guitar bend dom since olsem (historical) thus story, history earth flying fox green Children, youth Yaweyuha Phonemes page 4+ consonants, 3+ Contrasts continued. i/s/s dja pig mw tree sako olsem (non-historical) nije garden apiya yan type niseko I come nese thing i/a owe fireman dow good mije garden jatida the nig Va lowe two dow good elamobo not knowing oe heavy vf/vfw bode banana type yoo I cock in a ground oven ¥o Got gbohala his heart pvohe, bind tyne ovo, string bag EE ‘They cdok im a ground oven Yaweyuha Phonemes page Se 3+ Contrasts continued....-consonants. v/w/w cont. Be 26 Vowels i/e/a/o/a Ee er Et e\ te E ENCNCMCNS TBS TE IB) je. IS tay a i EN 10! BI lo} ENE" 1 < teNloy NI ‘usiness cook in a ground oven tree type yam type bird type make type his leg shell bis words gixt dog his knee his mouth yam type sweet potato (generic) his body ‘boy village banana (generic) yam (generic) syuho. Phone: 3634 Tone high vs low bird louse mé mushroom ag dog arean eontt col. eas his eye yyuha -honemos se T+ re Ans not bern tine to do =n smilysis of the tone of Yaveyuha, smd the conclusions contained herein and even the tones marked on examples ure hichly tentative. “ising tone hes ‘been noted on very feu vorés, aoet of thea sononyllnbic, but it rest vith both high and low. sees to con 4. Severivtion = rionts. By vory for visi aie here Yeon ote? in the éate thus far, cnd 2 nore detailed shonctic description would be exovcted und more ctory if such could be obtained. The an: n reason for the onetic dot 42 ty a te agg tee tive diy op 7 Ruswua sh ‘son age of tho nhonenic systens wit and dane languages respectively, ays of vor vith the Yavoyuha mon, in order to provide a workable orthogranhic francvork for the preparation ble. jie have tended to clovely ret tod i Lot of reading materials 25 sveedily as po hear sube: wontly throwh thie eid, end have been less ~v are of finer ictsil. 0 e erisen thus in the writing of ny materials, nz vith understending then sone rendy literate in toriale vero tested with Yaveyuhe szeatere - nglich, The: rhonotic 4sl. the “i vhonenos /t/, /a/, /e/ and /j/, ama occas, ionsy /n/, have fronted allophones which occur in free fluctuation with the shonetic norm, /s/ and /j/ ve alloshones with slightly sronter friction intervocslically. Aot-dl noted to dxte is as folloy 4+2. & lenis allophone of /g/ occurs intervoenlicnlly, and on one occasion at least has been heard as /g/ . ” Jeogotiye/ Csegohvel Lsegehyed Light (weight) Yaveyuha Fhonenes vago 8. cription~ variants cont. 4.3. The vhonenc /1/ is retroflexed nedially snd tends to ve uretzoflozed or only slightly retroflexed initi: ly+ In contrast © a flapped lateral or vibrend to related languages, it does not hi 4ehe The phononc /v/ has « lenis (6] sllovhone which occurs following /a/ in fluctustion vith Tw. JMexoyuha! £ Yofegehed % CYaweguha] language name, Vlawaha/ © lapahay ~~ Clawahal Ash 4.5« High tone /’/ has a dorm glide allotone [~"] which ocours on the final yllable of final verbs. tonenos have higher allotones at the beginning of 2 etrean of coscoh, Which become vrogressivaly lower as speoch continues 9 to a coneral lovering of the entire voice register during the corres of noracl svesch evonts. 5» Distribution. 5.1. Generel. There are no closed syllables, and no consonant clusters. Yowel clusters of to vowels occur within the same syllable, and clurters of up to throe vowels have been observed across syllable vomdaries (sco ecction 5-26 for oxemmles.) ‘he following syllable types occur: dog ov bire w yesterday, ttemerrew ow he eats. 5. 2. Specific. Se2s1e ‘he folloving vowel combinations heve been observed within the syllable: Yareyuha ‘honemes, sexe J+ 5. wistrivution continacd. ai naiye he eats: au ci eing, nent 20 yuhao plent it (imp. sg) of ging, greens ac | Mae, they vent ni oluipa = children ou = potesou = oxvlosiion oc Agoete §=—villlare name wetod thet the vosel combinations ou and iu may also 5. he following vows] combinctions heve been observed across syllable bounder: ose doo Lay 2.0 Jeowojiye he filled it o.ni gktoaito rch aifferent(1it otherothet) Hany more sich combinations vould be created if sredictable intervoerlic /y/*s and /:/'s vere omitted. Language helpers ond tics who helped to test the rea@ing sstericls hove vericd in their itional/y/ ana /¥/. In age inconsistent no say that it could bo vite: reset 49 exiting tren © exses they either way, vatioulorly wits “y/+ ob an othor on that At sieule athe oe taey Yoo) strongly ‘© there ox be omiticd ané have produced at Jes bon geailic contrast brtzcen the yresence ve absence o.. intervoealic / across syllable boundarices: es 2B two ; aS Tsay = Te ay seek thet tone contrast vevld influence the feoling for the aecone *: absence of /u/ in both these words} It vould suom to, ‘ane F Both in touching in -cmoGucing written riateritle 1° ye tional end /u/e could ‘sm yeitton or consistently ouitied. ither consistently Yaweyuha phonemes, page 10 5» Distritution contimed. ‘The feature of reduplication for compomding or intenpifying ‘ill also: create many vowel clusters across syllable boundaries end possibly cause ¢ifficulty in reading. The ortpgraplitic use of < hyphen between such clusters may be advisable. de Bitomaito each different (see example 3 above) 6. Orthography 61. Previous orthographies ~ none that we know of. 642. Proposed orthography. o 4s phonenie norms; except that we propose not to write tones To date only 11 minimal pairs have been noted, and Yaveyuia lacks the phonemic downglide contrest which makes it necessary to write tone in Siane. The tone system of Yaweyuha appears to follow more the pattern of Gabuku where it las been found to be unecessary to write tone for clear understanding of written materials

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