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The Dani or Baliem Valley languages are a family of clearly related Trans–New Guinea languages spoken by the Dani and related peoples in the Baliem Valley in the Highland Papua, Indonesia. Foley (2003) considers their Trans–New Guinea language group status to be established. They may be most closely related to the languages of Paniai Lakes, but this is not yet clear. Capell (1962) posited that their closest relatives were the Kwerba languages, which Ross (2005) rejects.

Languages

Larson (1977) divided the family into three branches based on lexicostatistics, and Nggem was later added as a fourth. The Ngalik languages are very poorly attested.

• Dani family
  • Wano
  • Nggem
  • Central Dani:
    • Grand Valley Dani (upper, lower, and mid dialects)
    • Hupla
    • Western Dani–Walak
  • Ngalik:
    • Nduga
    • Silimo
    • Yali (dialect cluster)

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows. This is identical to the reconstruction of Bromley (1966-1967) apart from adding the rare consonants *pw, *mbw, and the possible additional vowel *ɐ.

And the diphthongs *ei, *ou, *ai, *au.

Pronouns

Ross (1995) reconstructs the independent pronouns and possessive/object prefixes of Central Dani as:

	singular	plural
1	*an, *n	*ni-t, *nin-
2	*ka-t, *k	*ki-t, *kin-
3	*a-t, *∅/w-	*i-t, *in-

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from Bromley (1967) and Voorhoeve (1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.

The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. nakapak, ogobak, nokopak for “nose”) or not (e.g. natði, nemake, nabilikagen for “tongue”).

Evolution

Dani reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:

Grand Valley Dani language:

• ap 'man' < *ambi
• meli 'tongue' < *me(l,n)e
• n-esi 'hair' < *iti (n- is 1sg possessor)
• me(m) 'come' < *me-
• ket 'new' < *kVndak

Western Dani language:

• ap 'man' < *ambi
• (n)iti < *iti
• meli 'tongue' < *me(l,n)e
• get 'new' < *kVndak
• okut 'leg' < *k(a,o)ndok
• kat(lo) 'skin' < *(ŋg,k)a(nd,t)apu
• idu 'tree' < *inda

Ngalik language:

• idu(k)etu 'tree' < *inda
• (nak) amu 'breast' < *amu
• tokon 'full' < *tVkV
• kopu 'smoke' < *kambu

References

1. Capell, Arthur (1962). Linguistic Survey of the South-Western Pacific. South Pacific Commission Technical Paper. Vol. 136 (New and revised ed.). Noumea: South Pacific Commission.
2. Larson, Gordon F. (1977). "Reclassification of Some Irian Jaya Highlands Language Families: A Lexicostatical Cross-Family Subclassification with Historical Implications". Irian. VI (2): 3–40.
3. Usher, Timothy. "Balim Valley". New Guinea World.
4. ^ Bromley, Myron H. (June 1967). "The Linguistic Relationships of Grand Valley Dani: A Lexico-statistical Classification". Oceania. 37 (4): 286–305. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1967.tb00912.x. JSTOR 40329608.
5. Voorhoeve, C.L. (2015). Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. Pacific Linguistics. doi:10.15144/PL-B31. ISBN 978-0-85883-128-5.
6. Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
7. Clouse, Duane A. (1997). "Towards a reconstruction and reclassification of the Lakes Plain languages of Irian Jaya". In Karl Franklin (ed.). Papers in Papuan linguistics no. 2 (PDF). Vol. A-85. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 133–236. ISBN 0858834421.
8. Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". 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. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.

• Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.

• Dani languages
• West Papuan Highlands languages
• Languages of Western New Guinea