Yapese language

Yapese
Native to	Federated States of Micronesia
Region	Island of Yap
Native speakers	5,130 (2005)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Admiralty Islands? Yapese
Dialects	Nguluwan
Writing system	Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-2	yap
ISO 639-3	yap
Glottolog	yape1250[2]

Yapese is a language spoken by the people on the island of Yap (Federated States of Micronesia). It belongs to the Austronesian languages, more specifically to the Oceanic branch of that family. It has been difficult to classify it further, but Yapese may prove to be one of the Admiralty Islands languages.^[3]

Contents

• 
  1 Orthography
  


• 
  2 Phonology
  
  
  
  • 
    2.1 Consonants
    
  
  
  • 
    2.2 Vowels
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  3 Grammar
  
  
  
  • 
    3.1 Morphology
    
    
    
    • 
      3.1.1 Reduplication
      
    
    
    • 
      3.1.2 Pronouns
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  4 References
  


• 
  5 Bibliography
  


• 
  6 External links
  

Orthography

The branches of the Oceanic languages. Orange is the Admiralties languages and Yapese, yellow-orange is St. Matthias, green is Western Oceanic, violet is Temotu, and the rest are Central-Eastern: dark red Southeast Solomons, blue Southern Oceanic, pink Micronesian, and ocher Central Pacific linkage.

Written Yapese uses Latin script. In Yapese spelling as practiced until the 1970s, the glottal stop was not written with an explicit character. A word-final glottal stop was represented by doubling the final vowel letter. Glottalization of consonants was represented with an apostrophe. In the 1970s an orthography was created which uses double vowel letters to represent long vowels; and because of the ambiguity that would occur if the glottal stop was not written, the glottal stop was written with the letter q. This new orthography using the letter q is not in universal use, but many works and maps about Yap represent place names using the orthography and contain amounts of the letter q that are likely to be puzzling to persons not familiar with the language and the new orthography.

Phonology

Apart from a couple grammatical forms which are V, syllables are CV or CVC.

Consonants

Yapese is one of the relatively few languages in the world with ejective fricatives.^[4] The Yapese ejective consonants are /pʼ tʼ kʼ θʼ/. There are also glottalised nasals /mˀ nˀ ŋˀ/ and approximants /jˀ wˀ lˀ/.^{[5]:30, 34-35}

In the table below, each phoneme is listed to the left of the grapheme that represents it in Yapese orthography.

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	plain	m m		n n		ŋ ng
	glottalized	mˀ m'		nˀ n'		ŋˀ ng'
Plosive	plain	p p		t t		k k	ʔ q/[']
	ejective	pʼ p'		tʼ t'		kʼ k'
Fricative	voiceless	f f	θ th	s s	ʃ ch	x g	(h) h
	voiced	β b	ð d
	ejective		θʼ th'
Approximant	plain			l l	j y/j	w w
	glottalized			lˀ l'	jˀ y'	wˀ w'
Trill	plain			r r

/h/ <h> and /j/ <j> only occur in English and Japanese loans (/j/ <y> does occur in native words, however).

Vowels

In the table below, each phoneme is listed to the left of the grapheme that represents it in Yapese orthography.

	Front				Back
	unrounded		rounded		unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	ɪ i	iː ii					ʊ u	ʊː uu
Mid	ɛ e	eː ee	œ ö	œː oe	ʌ a		ɔ o	ɔː oo
Near-open	æ ë	æː ea
Open	a ä	aː ae					ɑː aa

Grammar

Morphology

Reduplication

Yapese makes use of reduplication for several morphological functions, including deriving stative adjectives from inchoative adjectives, as in (1a–b), as well as to make diminutives of verbs, as in (2a-b) ^[5]:112-114:

(1a)

roow

become.red

roow

become.red

'to become red'

(1b)

roow~roow

STAT~red

roow~roow

STAT~red

'to be red'

(2a)

toey

chop

toey

chop

'to chop'

(2b)

si-toey~toey

DIM-DIM~chop

si-toey~toey

DIM-DIM~chop

'to chop a little'

Pronouns

Yapese distinguishes between three numbers (singular, dual, and plural) and three persons (first, second, and third), as well as clusivity in its personal pronouns ^[5]:134.

Yapese independent personal pronouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1.INCL		gadow	gadaed
1.EXCL	gaeg	gamow	gamaed
2	guur	gimeew	gimeed
3	qiir	yow	yaed

References

1. 
   ^ "Yapese". Ethnologue. 2018. Retrieved 2018-08-11..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
   


2. 
   ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Yapesic". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
   


3. 
   ^ Lynch, John; Malcolm Ross; Terry Crowley (2002). The Oceanic languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon. ISBN 978-0-7007-1128-4. OCLC 48929366.
   


4. 
   ^ Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 178. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.
   


5. 
   ^ ^abc Jensen, John Thayer (1977). Yapese Reference Grammar. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0476-3. OCLC 929721939.
   

Bibliography

• Jensen, John Thayer. 1977. Yapese–English Dictionary. (PALI Language Texts: Micronesia.) Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.

External links

Yapese language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Yapese Wordlist at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database


• Jensen Yapese Dictionary On-Line at www.trussel2.com


• Chepin yuu Waqab ('Events on Yap'). Yapese-language vernacular reader


• Yaat nu Waqab ('Tales of Yap'). A Yapese-language vernacular reader


• Thaaboeg (this title is a man's name). A Yapese-language vernacular reader


• 
  Written materials about Yapese plants and animals archived with Kaipuleohone


• 
  Index cards of plant and animal names, labeled 'Carolines [animals].' and index cards of plant and animal names, labeled 'Carolines [plants].'
  


• Paradisec has two collections of Arthur Capell's materials (AC1, AC2), which include Yapese language materials


• Paradisec has an open access collection of Yapese texts and a dictionary from John Jensen

v t e Languages of the Federated States of Micronesia
Official language	English
Regional languages	Chuukese Kosraen Pohnpeian Yapese
Indigenous languages	Kapingamarangi Mokilese Mortlockese Namonuito Ngatikese Nukuoro Nguluwan Pááfang Pingelapese Puluwatese Satawalese Ulithian Woleaian
Creoles/Pidgins	Micronesian Pidgin English Ngatikese Creole

v t e Admiralty Islands languages
Manus	Western Bipi Hermit Khehek Likum Mondropolon Nyindrou Sori-Harengan Tulu-Bohuai Intermediate Loniu Mokerang Pak-Tong Eastern Andra-Hus Elu Ere Kele Kurti Koro Leipon Lele Nali Papitalai Ponam Titan
Southeast	Baluan-Pam Lenkau Lou Nauna Penchal
Western	Kaniet Seimat Wuvulu-Aua
Other	Nguluwan Yapese

v t e Languages of Oceania
Sovereign states	Australia Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Kiribati Marshall Islands Nauru New Zealand Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu
Associated states of New Zealand	Cook Islands Niue
Dependencies and other territories	American Samoa Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Easter Island French Polynesia Guam Hawaii New Caledonia Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Pitcairn Islands Tokelau Wallis and Futuna

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