Yabem language

Infobox Language
name=Yabem
states=Papua New Guinea
region=Huon Gulf, Morobe Province
speakers=2,084 (1978 McElhanon)
familycolor=Austronesian
fam2=Malayo-Polynesian
fam3=Central-Eastern
fam4=Eastern
fam5=Oceanic
fam6=Western
fam7=North New Guinea
fam8=Huon Gulf
fam9=North Huon Gulf
iso1=
iso2=
iso3=jae

Yabem or Jabêm is an Austronesian language spoken natively (in 1978) by about 2000 people at the southern tip of the Huon Peninsula in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. However, Yabem was adopted as local lingua franca for evangelical and educational purposes by the German Lutheran missionaries who first arrived at Simbang, a Yabem-speaking village, in 1886.

By 1939, it was spoken by as many as 15,000 people, and understood by as many as 100,000 (Zahn 1940). In the decade after World War II, the mission's network of schools managed to educate 30,000 students using Yabem as the medium of instruction (Streicher 1982). Although the usage of Yabem as a local lingua franca has now been replaced by Tok Pisin, Yabem remains one of the best documented Austronesian languages, with extensive instructional and liturgical materials (including many original compositions, not just translations from German or English) as well as grammars and dictionaries.

Phonology

Vowels (orthographic)

Yabem distinguishes the seven vowel qualities.

Genitive pronouns

The short, underdifferentiated genitive forms are often disambiguated by adding the free pronoun in front.

Numerals

Traditional counting practices started with the digits of one hand, then continued on the other hand, and then the feet to reach '20', which translates as 'one person'. Higher numbers are multiples of 'one person'. Nowadays, most counting above '5' is done in Tok Pisin. As in other Huon Gulf languages, an alternate form of the numeral '1' "(teŋ)" functions as an indefinite article. The numeral "luagêc" '2' can similarly function as an indefinite plural indicating 'a couple, a few, some'. The numeral root "ta" '1' suffixed with the adverbial marker "-geŋ" renders 'one, only one', while the numeral '2' similarly suffixed "(luàgêc-geŋ)" renders 'only a few'. Reduplicated numerals form distributives: "tageŋ-tageŋ" 'one by one', "têlêàc-têlêàc" 'in threes', etc. (See Bradshaw & Czobor 2005: 52-54.)

External links

*ethnologue|code=jae
* [http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/austronesian/language.php?id=334 Yabem Wordlist at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database]

References

* Bisang, Walter (1986). "Die Verb-Serialisierung im Jabêm." "Lingua" 70:131–162.
* Bradshaw, Joel (1979). "Obstruent harmony and tonogenesis in Jabêm." "Lingua" 49:189–205.
* Bradshaw, Joel (1983). "Dempwolff’s description of verb serialization in Yabem." In Amram Halim, Lois Carrington, and S. A. Wurm, eds., "Papers from the Third International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics," vol. 4, "Thematic variation," 177–198. Series C-77. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
* Bradshaw, Joel (1993). "Subject relationships within serial verb constructions in Numbami and Jabêm." "Oceanic Linguistics" 32:133–161.
* Bradshaw, Joel (1998). "Squib: Another look at velar lenition and tonogenesis in Jabêm." "Oceanic Linguistics" 37:178-181.
* Bradshaw, Joel (1999). "Null subjects, switch-reference, and serialization in Jabêm and Numbami." "Oceanic Linguistics" 38:270–296.
* Bradshaw, Joel (2001). "The elusive shape of the realis/irrealis distinction in Jabêm." In Joel Bradshaw and Kenneth L. Rehg, eds., "Issues in Austronesian morphology: A focusschrift for Byron W. Bender," 75–85. Pacific Linguistics 519. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
* Bradshaw, Joel, and Francisc Czobor (2005). "Otto Dempwolff's grammar of the Jabêm language in New Guinea." Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No. 32. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
* Dempwolff, Otto (1939). "Grammatik der Jabêm-Sprache auf Neuguinea." Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiet der Auslandskunde, vol. 50. Hamburg: Friederichsen de Gruyter.
* Ross, Malcolm (1993). "Tonogenesis in the North Huon Gulf chain." In Jerold A. Edmondson and Kenneth J. Gregerson, eds., "Tonality in Austronesian languages," 133–153. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No. 24. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
* Streicher, J. F. (1982). "Jabêm–English dictionary." Series C-68. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. (First compiled by Heinrich Zahn in 1917; later translated and revised by J. F. Streicher.)
* Zahn, Heinrich (1940). "Lehrbuch der Jabêmsprache (Deutsch-Neuguinea)." Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprache, Beiheft 21. Berlin: Reimer.