The Dani or Baliem Valley languages are a family of clearly related

Trans–New Guinea languages Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive Language family, family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands, a region corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as Western New Guinea, parts of Indone ...

spoken by the Dani and related peoples in the

Baliem Valley The Baliem Valley (; also spelled Balim and sometimes known as the Grand Valley) is a valley of the Central Highlands in Western New Guinea, specifically in the province of Highland Papua, Indonesia. The main town in the valley is Wamena, which ...

in the

Highland Papua Highland Papua () is a provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, which roughly follows the borders of the Papuan customary region of Lano-Pago (often shortened to La Pago). It covers an area of and had a population of 1,467,050 according to ...

, 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 The Paniai Lakes, originally known as the Wissel Lakes, are the three large, freshwater lakes in Central Papua, Indonesia: Paniai, Tigi, and Tage. Lakes Paniai and Tage are located in the Paniai Regency, while Lake Tigi is located in Deiyai Regen ...

, but this is not yet clear. Capell (1962) posited that their closest relatives were the

Kwerba languages The half dozen Kwerba languages form a small language family spoken in Papua Province, Indonesia. Languages The languages are, *Bagusa language, Bagusa *Kauwera language, Kauwera (Kaowerawedj) *Kwerba language, Kwerba (Sasawa, Air Mati) *Kwerba ...

, 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 Grand Valley Dani, or simply Dani, 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. Dialects Dialectical differentiation is great en ...

(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: :

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 Grand Valley Dani, or simply Dani, 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. Dialects Dialectical differentiation is great e ...

: * 'man' < * 'tongue' < * 'hair' < ( is 1sg possessor) * 'come' < * 'new' <

Western Dani language Western Dani, or Lani, is a Nuclear-Trans-New Guinea language. It is the Papuan language with the most speakers in Indonesian New Guinea. It is spoken by the Lani people in the province of Highland Papua. The Baliem Valley tribes are calle ...

: * 'man' < * < * 'tongue' < * 'new' < * 'leg' < * 'skin' < * 'tree' <

Ngalik language 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 langu ...

: * 'tree' < * 'breast' < * 'full' < * 'smoke' <

References

* {{Authority control West Papuan Highlands languages Languages of Western New Guinea