Yareba language. Dictionaries of Papua New Guinea

APPENDICES
1. Things to Know About the Yareba Language

GRAMMAR

This description of the word classes in Yareba will help
anyone wanting to learn the language. As you look through the
dictionary you will find different kinds of words. In this
section we will try to show how to use these kinds of words.

Yareba word classes are much the same as the word classes
which we have in English. In Yareba, the verbs are much more
important than any of the other word classes. For example
one verb can often be a complete sentence in itself; like
isinu 'he ate' or even i 'he ate f .

Because the verbs are the most important words in the
language we will describe them first. There are three kinds
of verbs: primary, secondary and tertiary.

VERBS

Primary verbs are the ones in the predicate position of
dependent and independent clauses. They may have affixes on
them showing tense, aspect, number, person and mood.

u-i 'he did' (far past tense)

stem-person

This word may then be expanded as follows:

u-s-£-nu ! he did 1 (near past tense)

stem-class .marker-tense-person

u-t-a-su f he is doing 1 (present tense)

stem-class .marker-tense-person

u-f-i-su f he will do it 1 (future tense)

stem-tense-number-person

u-t-edibei-b-i-su 'he will do it ' (habitually and

stem-class. marker-mood-tense-number-person continually)

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On pages ^93 to 501 you will find conjugations of two
regular verbs, 'to do 1 and 'to take'; and two irregular verbs,
! to say 1 and f to put f . This will give you an idea of how verbs
look in all their forms .

Secondary verbs are made up of a stem, with a class marker
(where one occurs) and the affixes -ebe or -eda . The affix
-ebe shows action that goes on and on,

manebe 'going up and up and then...'

The affix -eda shows action that happens at the same time as
another action occurs.

maneda 'while going up...'

Tertiary verbs are composed of a stem with a class marker
(where one occurs) and the affix -e . This verb is seen as
part of the same action as the following verb.

are ea 'come and see'

coming you. see

There are five tenses in Yareba. They tell about the
time of the action: far past, past, past completive, present
and future.

muve 'I took' (far past)

mune 'I took ' (past)

munaine 'I have taken' (past completive)

munatane 'I am taking' (present)

mumau 'I will take' (future)

All verb stems may have this affix, -eta , which makes a
verb into a noun.

i-eta 'food'

eat-nominalizer

yau-r-eta 'chair'

sit-class .marker-nominalizer

Complex verbs or verb phrases are made up of two words.
Although you will see such words as witua 3 esirOj beari
and durami listed separately, these words must be followed
by a primary verb to complete their meaning.

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wiiua usinu 'he spit 1

spit he. did

esiro
sneeze

uvinu
he. hit

'he sneezed 1

beari
yawn

muninu
he .took

f he yawned 1

yo
laugh

wenu
he. talked

f he laughed 1

PRONOUNS

The personal pronouns are these free words:

na f I f wa 'we two' ya f we f (plural)

a 'you' ya 'you two' ya 'you' (plural)

dawa 'he' ema 'they two' ema f they' (plural)

Demonstrative pronouns are limited to four.

i 'the' etei 'that/those'

ewa 'this/these' abo 'which'

Interrogative pronouns are also a small class and we list
them all here:

arte 'what' ana 'who'

anene 'how' abododo 'when'

ananu 'whose' aboabo 'how many'

anaiya 'who is it' anama 'who'
aneba 'why'

NOUNS

There are five sub-classes of nouns.

General nouns are a large sub-class of words and in this
sub-class are words like:

amara 'male' oi 'money /bush 1

maidani 'mountain' dubena 'back 1

su 'house' egi 'wild game 1

Kinship nouns are very important as they tell the listener
what is the relationship of the one being spoken about. The

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following are only some of this fairly large sub-class. (On
pages 512 and 513 you will find a kinship chart of terms . )

baya f my/our mother' baba f my/our father 1
danua 'his mother' damama 'his father'
anua 'your mother' amama 'your father'

Place nouns point out positions.

abana 'middle' etua 'there'

oto 'top' tutubu f under the house'

emina 'below' etara 'there'

Time nouns talk about time either specific or vague.

awona 'now/today' arena 'yesterday'

duburo 'later' waidumu 'tomorrow'

nono 'again' bodere 'long ago'

Derived nouns are the ones made from verbs . They have
been described in the verb section as a verb stem with a
class marker plus the nominalizer -eta .

ma-eta 'gift'

stem. of . give-nominalizer

ou-eta 'stove'

stem. of . cook-nominal izer

ADJECTIVES

There are three sub-classes of adjectives. (They show the
amount of the thing. )

Sub-class Ai are quantifiers.

mo ana 'some' botai 'first' mui 'another'

Sub-class A2 are limit ers and include all numbers and
some exclamatory words .

demurai 'one' fefera 'very many'

sadei 'two' nabana 'very big'

Sub-class A 3 are descriptive. (They show what the thing is
like.*} As free words they are in front of the word they modify
and when they have intensifiers for affixes they follow the

i+90

dera 'big' kiki 'small'

derawere f very big 1 kikiratu 'very small 1

ADVERBS

These words are modifiers of verbs.

sau f quickly 1 eno 'like this 1

kekerama f slowly 1 ido f so then 1

INTENSIFIERS

These are bound words when they immediately follow an
adjective, and are free words when they immediately follow
a noun.

were (derawere) 'very' ('very big')

amara were / dera amara were 'what a man!'

ratu (kikiratu) 'little' ( 'very little' )

su ratu / kiki su ratu 'little house'

SYNTAX

We have already said that the verb is the most important
word in the language and most clauses are predicate clauses.
In other words, most clauses have a verb in them. However,
there is also a clause which does not have a verb at all.
This is called a stative clause.

Predicate clauses can appear as a single word or several
words :

usinu 'he did'

I amarama usinu 'the man did'

A stative clause is still a complete and meaningful con-
struction even though it does not have a verb in the construc-
tion.

dawa yafawere 'he is very tall'

he tall. very

etei suna nanu su 'that is my house'

that house. is my house

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Sentences in Yareba can be very short y even one word^ or
they can be very long. The long sentences are joined together
by four main joining affixes or clitics:

-ba 'because'

-na 'if /when/so'

-te f and f (same subject following)

-vo f and f (different subject following)

ieta dawabai imane anete_ yaunevo_ iga -ieta masinuba

da imaro^ kobere ieta mafisuna_ ido imau.

f I wanted to eat food with him so I went and sat but he gave
me dirty food which I will not eat and if he will give me
some good food then I will eat.'

Weimer, Harry and Natalia Weimer, compilers. 1974. Yareba language. Dictionaries
of Papua New Guinea, 2. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. 524 p.