Yele – West New Britain languages
| Yele – West New Britain | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution |
New Britain & Rossel Island |
| Linguistic classification | Proposed language family |
| Subdivisions | |
| Glottolog | None |
The Yele – West New Britain languages are a tentative language family that unites three language isolates, Anêm and Ata (Wasi) of New Britain, and Yélî Dnye (Yele) of Rossel Island. These were classified as East Papuan languages by Stephen Wurm, but this does not now seem tenable, and was abandoned in Ethnologue (2009), though the tentative relationship between them was accepted. The Yele – West New Britain family was first proposed by Malcolm Ross.
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.
...
Wikipedia