Salt, or Yui, is a TransâÂÂNew Guinea language of Chimbu Province, Papua New Guinea.
Basics
The following are some basic examples of phrases and nouns in Salt-Yui:
Pronunciation
Vowels
The following is how you pronounce certain vowels in Salt-Yui:
- /a/ is pronounced as in f<u>a</u>ther
- /e/ is pronounced as in p<u>e</u>g
- /i/ is pronounced as in t<u>i</u>n
- /o/ is pronounced as in m<u>o</u>re
- /u/ is pronounced as in p<u>u</u>t
Consonants
Most consonants are similar to English, except for the following:
- r between vowels is flapped i.e. like '<u>d</u><nowiki/>'. And if placed at the end of a word it is not voiced but trilled.
- l between vowels is flapped i.e. like '<nowiki/><u>d</u><nowiki/>'. but if not, it has the same friction as the English '<u>l</u><nowiki/>'.
- ng is normally pronounced as in 'si<u>ng</u><nowiki/>', but if it is in the 2nd person it should be pronounced as a sequence of <u>'n+g</u><nowiki/>'
Pronouns
Most nouns may show ownership this way:
Example:
Personal pronouns are shown like this:
Verbs
The following is how to conjugate verbs with personal pronouns shown with an example:
As seen above, Salt-Yui has a special form for verbs with 'I alone'; why this is is still unknown.
Other example verbs:
All of these verbs can follow the previous conjugations for verbs.
Adjectives
In Salt-Yui, adjectives usually follow the noun, here are some examples of adjectives in Salt-Yui:
Numerals
There are five cardinal numerals that have been written down, which are the following:
Locatives
The following are examples of known locatives in Salt-Yui:
References
Further reading
- Glottolog 5.0 - Barry Irwin 1974 Salt-Yui Grammar by Barry Irwin. 1974, published by the Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University
- Salt-Yui New Testament Salt-Yui New Testament. 1978, published by the Wycliffe Bible Translators
External links