Yali language

Yali
Yalimo
Native toIndonesia
RegionHighland Papua
EthnicityYali
Native speakers
(30,000 cited 1988–1999)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
yli – Anggurk Yali
nlk – Ninia Yali
yac – Pass Valley Yali
Glottologyali1257

Yali (Yaly, Jalè, Jaly) is a Papuan language of Indonesian New Guinea. The Yali people live east of the Baliem Valley, in the Western Highlands.

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

  • Pass Valley, also known as Abenaho, North Ngalik, and Western Yali; subdialects are Pass Valley, Landikma, Apahapsili.
  • Ninia, also known as North Ngalik and Southern Yali (Yali Selatan).
  • Angguruk, also known as Northern Yali.

However, almost nothing is known of this language. Not even the pronouns were attested for Ross (2005) to base a classification on.

Siegfried Zoellner, a German missionary, has between 1960 and 1973 translated the bible into the Yali language.

  1. ^ Anggurk Yali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Ninia Yali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Pass Valley Yali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)