View source for Social:Yele – West New Britain languages

{{Infobox language family
|name=Yele – West New Britain 
|acceptance=proposed
|region=New Britain & Rossel Island
|familycolor=Papuan
|family      = Proposed [[Social:Language family|language family]]
|glotto=none
|child1=West New Britain
|child2=? ''Yélî Dnye''
}}

'''Yele – West New Britain''' is a tentative [[Social:Language family|language family]] proposal by Malcolm Ross that unites three languages: [[Social:Anêm language|Anêm]] and Ata (Wasi) of western New Britain, and more dubiously Yélî Dnye (Yele) of Rossel Island. These were classified as [[Social:East Papuan languages|East Papuan languages]] by Stephen Wurm, but this does not now seem tenable. While Anêm and Ata do appear to be related, Yele may turn out to be an Austronesian language.

==Pronouns==
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 (grammatical number)|dual]] pronouns which aren't shown. 

:{| class=wikitable
|-
! colspan=4| Anêm
|-
| rowspan=2| '''I''' || rowspan=2| ''{{IPA|ue, a-}}'' || '''excl.''' || ''{{IPA|mɯn, mɯ-}}''
|-
| '''incl.''' || ''{{IPA|miŋ, –}}''
|-
| '''thou''' || ''{{IPA|nin, ni-}}'' || '''you''' || ''{{IPA|–, ŋɯ-}}''
|-
| '''he''' || ''{{IPA|lɤxa, u-}}'' || rowspan=2|'''they''' || rowspan=2|''{{IPA|–, i-}}''
|-
| '''she''' || ''{{IPA|sɤxa, i-}}'' 
|}

:{| class=wikitable
|-
! colspan=4| Ata
|-
| rowspan=2| '''I''' || rowspan=2| ''{{IPA|eni, a-}}'' || '''excl.''' || ''{{IPA|neɣi, ta-}}''
|-
| '''incl.''' || ''{{IPA|ŋeŋe, –}}''
|-
| '''thou''' || ''{{IPA|nini, na-}}'' || '''you''' || ''{{IPA|ŋiŋi, ŋa-}}''
|-
| '''he''' || ''{{IPA|anu, u-}}'' || rowspan=2|'''they''' || rowspan=2|''{{IPA|aneʔi, i-}}''
|-
| '''she''' || ''{{IPA|ani, i-}}'' 
|}

:{| class=wikitable
|-
! colspan=4| Yele
|-
| '''I''' || ''{{IPA|ɳə, a}}'' || '''we''' || ''{{IPA|ɳ͡mo, ɳ͡mɨ}}''
|-
| '''thou''' || ''{{IPA|ni}}, {{IPA|N-|cat=no}}'' || '''you''' || ''{{IPA|n͡mo, n͡me}}''
|-
| '''s/he''' || ''{{IPA|–, u}}'' || '''they''' || ''{{IPA|–, ji}}''
|}

==See also==
*Papuan languages

==References==
*''Structural Phylogenetics and the Reconstruction of Ancient Language History''. Michael Dunn, Angela Terrill, Ger Reesink, Robert A. Foley, Stephen C. Levinson. ''Science'' magazine, 23 Sept. 2005, vol. 309, p 2072.
*Malcolm Ross (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages." In: Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Robin Hide and Jack Golson, eds, ''Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples,'' 15-66. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

{{language families}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yele - West New Britain languages}}
[[Category:Proposed language families]]

{{Sourceattribution|Yele – West New Britain languages}}