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Yetfa and Biksi (Biaksi; Inisine[2]) are dialects of a language spoken in Jetfa District, Pegunungan Bintang Regency, Highland Papua, Indonesia, and across the border in Papua New Guinea. It is a trade language spoken in Western New Guinea up to the PNG border.
| Biksi-Yetfa | |
|---|---|
| Biksi | |
| Native to | Indonesia and Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Jetfa District in Pegunungan Bintang Regency |
| Ethnicity | Yetfa, Biksi |
Native speakers | (1,000 cited 1996)[1] |
Pauwasi
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | yet |
| Glottolog | yetf1238 |
| ELP | Yetfa-Biksi |
According to Hammarström (2008), it is being passed on to children and is not in immediate danger.
Yetfa is not close to other languages. Ross (2005), following Laycock & Z’Graggen (1975), places Biksi in its own branch of the Sepik family, but there is little data to base a classification on. The similarities noted by Laycock are sporadic and may simply be loans; Ross based his classification on pronouns, but they are dissimilar enough for the connection to be uncertain. Usher found it to be a Southern Pauwasi language. Foley (2018) classifies it as a language isolate.[2]
Foley (2018b: 295-296) notes that first person pronoun and third-person singular masculine pronoun in Yetfa match pronouns found in Sepik languages, with some resemblances such as nim ‘louse’ with proto-Sepik *nim ‘louse’, and wal ‘ear’ with proto-Sepik *wan. However, Foley (2018b) considers the evidence linking Yetfa to the Sepik family to be insufficient, thus classifying Yetfa as a language isolate until further evidence can be found.[3]
Pronouns from Ross (2005):
I nyo we nana thou pwo you so s/he do they dwa
Pronouns from Kim (2005), as quoted in Foley (2018):[2]
| sg | pl | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | na | no |
| 2 | po | so-na-m |
| 3 | do | do-na-ma |
Basic vocabulary of Yetfa from Kim (2006), quoted in Foley (2018):[4][2]
| gloss | Yetfa |
|---|---|
| ‘bird’ | dau |
| ‘blood’ | dueal |
| ‘bone’ | fan |
| ‘breast’ | nom |
| ‘ear’ | wal |
| ‘eat’ | ɲa |
| ‘egg’ | nela |
| ‘eye’ | i |
| ‘fire’ | yao |
| ‘give’ | ni- |
| ‘go’ | la- |
| ‘ground’ | permai |
| ‘hair’ | framai |
| ‘hear’ | wi- |
| ‘I’ | na(wo) |
| ‘leg’ | yop |
| ‘louse’ | nim |
| ‘man’ | nam |
| ‘moon’ | dirmanel |
| ‘name’ | met |
| ‘one’ | kəsa |
| ‘road, path’ | mla |
| ‘see’ | am- |
| ‘sky’ | aklai |
| ‘stone’ | tekop |
| ‘sun’ | imenel |
| ‘tongue’ | mor |
| ‘tooth’ | doa |
| ‘tree’ | yo |
| ‘two’ | daisil |
| ‘water’ | ket |
| ‘we’ | no(wo) |
| ‘woman’ | romo |
| ‘you (sg)’ | po(wo) |
| ‘you (pl)’ | sonam |
The following basic vocabulary words are from Conrad & Dye (1975)[5] and Voorhoeve (1975),[6] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[7]
| gloss | Yetfa |
|---|---|
| head | fran; ᵽr᷈an |
| hair | fra may; ᵽʌřamai |
| eye | i; ʔiʔ |
| nose | ndor |
| tooth | ɔřa; rwa |
| tongue | moR᷈ |
| louse | ni:m; yim |
| dog | say |
| pig | mbaR᷈; mualə |
| bird | rawi |
| egg | řonǏa |
| blood | ndwal |
| bone | fan |
| skin | tol; toR᷈ |
| tree | yau; yo; yɔ |
| man | nam |
| woman | namiyaA |
| sun | məlel |
| water | kel; kɛr᷈ |
| fire | yaʋ; yau |
| stone | təkoup; tɩkɔᵽ |
| road, path | miaA |
| eat | ŋa; ntɛřᵽI |
| one | kəsa; kɛsa |
| two | ndyesel; tesyɛnsaR᷈ |
There is very little sentence data for Yetfa. Some of the few documented Yetfa sentences are:[2]
(1)
do
3SG
mete
yesterday
ti-yo
come-TNS
‘She came yesterday’
(2)
do
3SG
muni
money
ɲ(a)-awa-te
1SG-father-DAT?
ni-yo
give-TNS
‘She gave money to my father.’
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