Ata language

Papuan language spoken on New Britain island
Ata
Pele-Ata
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionNew Britain
Native speakers
2,000 (2007)[1]
Language family
Language codes
ISO 639-3ata
Glottologpele1245
ELPPele-Ata
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The Ata language, also known as Pele-Ata after its two dialects, or Wasi, is a Papuan language spoken on New Britain island, Papua New Guinea. It appears to be related to neighboring Anêm, and possibly also to Yélî Dnye in a proposed Yele-West New Britain family. There are about 2000 speakers.

Ata is spoken in West Pomio-Mamusi Rural LLG, East New Britain Province, and in Talasea District, West New Britain Province.[2]

Dialects

According to Yanagida (2004), there are two dialects of Ata, a Lower dialect spoken in the lowlands and an Upper dialect spoken in the mountains.[3] The Lower dialect is spoken in Bialla Rural LLG, West New Britain Province, while the Upper dialect is spoken mostly in West Pomio-Mamusi Rural LLG, East New Britain Province:[4]

Lower dialect (in Bialla Rural LLG, West New Britain Province):

  • Kiava (Old Kiava) (5°25′50″S 151°02′49″E / 5.43047°S 151.047°E / -5.43047; 151.047 (Kiawa))
  • Korovasi
  • Malasi (5°27′56″S 150°58′41″E / 5.46557°S 150.978°E / -5.46557; 150.978 (Malasi))
  • Milikina (Elobe) (5°34′06″S 150°53′31″E / 5.56842°S 150.892°E / -5.56842; 150.892 (Elobe))
  • Mulusi
  • Ole
  • Sale (Gogosi) (5°31′43″S 150°57′47″E / 5.52855°S 150.963°E / -5.52855; 150.963 (Sale))
  • Sege (5°31′47″S 150°55′23″E / 5.52977°S 150.923°E / -5.52977; 150.923 (Sege))
  • Silanga [settlement] (5°33′16″S 150°50′56″E / 5.55438°S 150.849°E / -5.55438; 150.849 (Silanga Mission))

Upper dialect (in West Pomio-Mamusi Rural LLG, East New Britain Province, unless noted otherwise):

  • Sipa (Bauka), West New Britain (5°35′44″S 150°53′13″E / 5.59544°S 150.887°E / -5.59544; 150.887 (Sipa))
  • Uasilau [settlement], West New Britain (5°34′58″S 150°53′02″E / 5.58284°S 150.884°E / -5.58284; 150.884 (Uasilau))
  • Kaikou (5°39′08″S 150°59′32″E / 5.652238°S 150.992254°E / -5.652238; 150.992254 (Kaikou))
  • Lavugi (5°38′28″S 150°58′03″E / 5.641182°S 150.967552°E / -5.641182; 150.967552 (Lavugi))
  • Luge, West New Britain (5°33′45″S 150°51′04″E / 5.56239°S 150.851°E / -5.56239; 150.851 (Luge))
  • Ti (5°38′41″S 151°00′01″E / 5.644822°S 151.000275°E / -5.644822; 151.000275 (Kukulu))
  • Yauyau (5°37′38″S 150°57′35″E / 5.627284°S 150.959744°E / -5.627284; 150.959744 (Yauyau))
  • Kukulu (5°38′41″S 151°00′01″E / 5.644822°S 151.000275°E / -5.644822; 151.000275 (Kukulu))

Both the lower and upper dialects are spoken in the settlement of Silanga.

There are some lexical differences between the dialects. Some examples are listed below.[3]: 71 

gloss Upper Ata Lower Ata
rain uali laʔiua
sweet potato totoʔo kelatu
cassava mio mio, mioxa
throw something paxele pei
yes iou ani
the day before yesterday malakaumei malaʔo
2nd person dual
independent pronoun		 ngolou ngongou
3rd person dual
independent pronoun		 olou ilou

Phonology

Phonology of the Ata language:[5]

Consonant sounds
Labial Alveolar Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive p t k ʔ
Fricative β s x
Approximant l

/s/ is pronounced as alveolo-palatal [ɕ] before /i/, /x/ is voiced as [ɣ] when occurring intervocalically.

A word-initial /i/ is realized as a [j], and a word-initial /u/ becomes a [w] when preceding /o/ or /ɑ/.

Vowel sounds
Front Back
High i iː u uː
Mid ɛ ɛː o oː
Low ɑ ɑː

Noun classes

Ata makes use of noun classes, some of which are:[6]: 792 

  • Class 1 nouns: stationary and function in a state of relative stagnancy
  • Class 2 nouns: portable and function in a state of relative motion
  • Class 3 nouns: relating to the body’s internal needs

Below are some Ata noun class paradigms, using the noun roots lavo’o ‘stone’ and lexe ‘song’ as examples:[6]: 792 

root lavo’o /stone/ ‘stone’
Class 1 lavo'o-silo /stone-my/ ‘my stone to be used for a house’
Class 2 lavo'o-xeni /stone-my/ ‘my stone to be used for breaking nuts’
Class 3 lavo'o-xo /stone-my/ ‘my stone for a stone oven’
root lexe /song/ ‘song’
Class 1 lexe-silo /song-my/ ‘a song to be sung for me’
Class 2 lexe-xeni /song-my/ ‘the song I sing’
Class 3 lexe-xo /song-my/ ‘the song about me’

Vocabulary

Selected basic vocabulary items in Ata:[7]

gloss Ata
bird ngiala
blood sialuxu
bone xine
breast susu
ear sangalie
eat ’ie
egg atolu
eye iei
fire navu
give iti; losie
go lai
ground lia
leg tava'a
louse meni
man aliko
moon so'io
name uala
one vile
road, path vote'i
see maisou
sky loxotolo
stone lavo'o
sun aso
tongue levexe
teeth anaxu ilaanu (anaxu = 'mouth')
tree aiinu; ovu
two tamei
water lexa
woman sema

See also

References

  1. ^ Ata at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
  3. ^ a b Yanagida, Tatsuya. 2004. Socio-historic overview of the Ata language, an endangered Papuan language in New Britain, Papua New Guinea. In Shibata Norio and Shionoya, Toru (eds.), Kan minami Taiheiyoo no gengo 3 [Languages of the South Pacific Rim 3], 61-94. Suita: Faculty of Informatics, Osaka Gakuin University.
  4. ^ United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
  5. ^ Hashimoto, Kazuo (June 1992). Ata (Pele Ata, Wasi) Language [ATA] Kimbe – West New Britain Province (PDF). Organised Phonology Data: SIL.
  6. ^ a b Stebbins, Tonya; Evans, Bethwyn; Terrill, Angela (2018). "The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 775–894. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  7. ^ Hashimoto (2008)

Further reading

  • Hashimoto, Kazuo (2008), Ata-English Dictionary with English-Ata Finderlist, Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics
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