Grand Valley Dani language

Grand Valley Dani, or simply Dani,^[2] is one of the most populous Papuan languages in Indonesian New Guinea (also known as Papua). The Dani people live in the Baliem Valley of the Western Highlands.

Grand Valley Dani
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Highland Papua
Ethnicity	Dani
Native speakers	(90,000 cited 1990–1996)^[1]
Language family	Trans–New Guinea West Trans–New Guinea Irian Highlands ? Dani languages Dani proper Grand Valley Dani
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: dni – Lower dnt – Mid dna – Upper hap – Hupla
Glottolog	gran1246

Dialects

Dialectical differentiation is great enough that Ethnologue assigns separate codes to three varieties:

• Lower
• Mid or Central, also known as Tulem
• Upper

Lower Grand Valley Dani contains subdialects Lower Grand Valley Hitigima (Dani-Kurima, Kurima), Upper Bele, Lower Bele, Lower Kimbin (Kibin), and Upper Pyramid. Hupla, traditionally considered a separate language, is closer to Lower Grand Valley than the varieties of Grand Valley Dani are to each other.

Phonology

Grand Valley Dani has established its own orthography during a conference between linguists of the Dutch New Guinea government and different missionary bodies on February 1961. This is the phonology of the Central Grand Valley Dani language:^[3]

Consonants

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
					plain	lab.
Nasal		m	n		ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive	voiceless	p ⟨b, p⟩	t ⟨d, t⟩		k ⟨g, k⟩	kʷ ⟨gw, kw⟩	ʔ ⟨'⟩
	aspirated	pʰ ⟨p, ph⟩	tʰ ⟨t, th⟩		kʰ ⟨k, kh⟩	kʷʰ ⟨kw, kwh⟩
	implosive	ɓ ⟨bp⟩	ɗ ⟨dl⟩
Fricative			s				h
Lateral			l
Semivowel				j		w

Unlike other orthographies of local languages in Indonesia (largely based on the standard orthography), the original Grand Valley Dani orthography (the current one might be not known) has j instead of y, in common with the Indonesian old spelling.

• The letters ⟨p, t, k⟩ are pronounced as aspirated /pʰ, tʰ, kʰ/ in word-initial position and as [β, ɾ, ɣ] in intervocalic positions, respectively. They merge with voiceless /p, t, k/ syllable-finally, which is also represented by graphic voiced consonants ⟨b, d, g⟩. However, aspirated consonants still occur intervocalically, see below.
• The phoneme /h/ merges with preceding or following phonemes:^[4]
  • It aspirates preceding ⟨p, t, k⟩, creating effectively phonemic aspirated consonants in intervocalic positions (japha /japʰa/ "they fought").
  • It also compensatorily lengthened adjacent vowel or sonorants (except /j/, /w/), however, one element of the most adjacent lengthened vowel to /h/ is devoiced (wamhe /wamhe/, [wamm̥ɛ] "pig (with connective morpheme)").

Vowels

Vowels

	front	central	back
close	i		u
	ɪ ⟨y⟩		ʊ ⟨v⟩
mid	e		o
low		a

Grammar

Verbs

Verbs in Grand Valley Dani are highly inflected for many tenses. Infinitive is marked by the suffix -in, although verb stems in -s- change to -t- before consonants: wetasin "to roast", but wetathy "I roasted".

Finite tenses

Default personal markers^[5]

		number
		Singular	Plural
person	1st	-y	-o
	2nd	-en	-ep
	3rd	-e	-em

Although there are claimed "default" personal markers, the correspondences between tense suffixes and personal markers are often highly irregular. Nevertheless, inflections of verbs are still highly regular. Unless denoted in the table, verb forms are marked by personal markers.

List

Tense	Suffix(es)
Near future	-ikin in the singular, -ukun in the plural. Never inflected by person, only by number.
Indefinite future	-isikin in the singular, -isukun in the plural. Never inflected by person, only by number.
Near past	-h-.
Remote past	-hikh- in the 3sg, -hukh- in the 3pl, and -hVk- elsewhere. -V- is an echo vowel from the personal markers, e.g. -hyky, -heken, etc.
Perfect past	Suffixing the near past with -tik in the 1sg, -ttik in the 2sg, -sip in the 2pl and -sik elsewhere. In the second person, the final consonants of original near past endings, when suffixed, have to be deleted (-hen (2sg) + -ttik → -hettik, -hep (2pl) + -sip → -hesip). The ending for 3pl is irregular: -hasik instead of *-hemsik.
Habitual	Replacing every instances of syllable-final -i- and -sik (but not -sip → -sep) of the perfect past with -e- and -tek, respectively (-hettik → -hettek).
Habitual perfect	Infixing -si- into the main habitual ending (-hettek → -hettesik). The ending for 2pl is irregular: -hesep → -hetesip instead of *-hesesip.

		Singular			Plural
		First	Second	Third	First	Second	Third
Future	Near	-ikin			-ukun
	Indefinite	-isikin			-isukun
Past	Near	-hy	-hen	-he	-ho	-hep	-hem
	Remote	-hyky	-heken	-hikhe	-huku	-hikip	-hukha
	Perfect	-hytik	-hettik	-hesik	-hosik	-hesip	-hasik
Habitual	Main	-hytek	-hettek	-hetek	-hotek	-hesep	-hatek
	Perfect	-hytesik	-hettesik	-hetesik	-hotesik	-hetesip	-hatesik
Progressive		-hylahy	-hylaken	-iako	-hylako	-hylakep	-iakoei

Semantics

The Dani language differentiates only two basic colours, mili for cool/dark shades such as blue, green, and black, and mola for warm/light colours such as red, yellow, and white. This trait makes it an interesting field of research for language psychologists, such as Eleanor Rosch, investigating the Whorf hypothesis.^[6][7]

References

1. Lower at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Mid at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Upper at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Hupla at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Compare Lani
3. Nijhoff 1966, p. 10–11
4. Bromley 1961, p. 31–32
5. Nijhoff 1966, p. 22–23
6. Saunders, Barbara Ann Christine (January 1, 1992). The Invention of Basic Colour Terms. R.U.U.-I.S.O.R. ISBN 9789051870879 – via Google Books.
7. Heider, Eleanor Rosch (1972). "Probabilities, Sampling, and Ethnographic Method: The Case of Dani Colour Names". Man. 7 (3): 448–466. doi:10.2307/2800917. JSTOR 2800917 – via JSTOR.

Further reading

• Nijhoff, Martinus (1966). (PDF). Van Het Koninklijk Instituut Voor Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 15, 2019.
• Bromley, H. Myron (1961). (PDF). Van Het Koninklijk Instituut Voor Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 8, 2018.