Yamdena language

Yamdena
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Maluku Islands
Native speakers	69,000 (2023) [1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (MP) Central–Eastern MP Kei–Tanimbar Yamdena–North Bomberai Yamdena
Language codes
ISO 639-3	jmd
Glottolog	yamd1240

Yamdena is an Austronesian language of Yamdena and surrounding islands in the Maluku Islands in Indonesia. In 1991, there were an estimated 25,000 speakers of the language.^{[ citation needed ]} Current BPS data has the present number of speakers at 69,000.^{[ citation needed ][ when? ]}

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k
	voiced	b	d
	prenasal	ᵐp	ⁿd
Fricative		f	s
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Rhotic			r
Lateral			l
Approximant		w		j

• Stops /b,t/ can very rarely be realized as coarticulated sounds [ɡ͡b,k͡t] by some speakers.
• /m/ can be heard as voiceless [m̥] in free variation when before initial voiceless stops, or after voiceless stops.
• /ŋ/ is heard as labialized [ŋʷ] when occurring before liquids, or in word-final position.
• /r/ can be heard as [ɺ] in free variation intervocalically, and as [ɾ] when before voiceless consonants.
• /d,ⁿd/ when occurring before /i/ can also be heard as palatal stops [ɟ,ᶮɟ].

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

• Vowels /a,o/ can be heard as [ə] within unstressed syllables.
• /i/ can be heard as [ɪ] word-finally, after vowels.
• /o/ can be heard as [ɔ] when before /r/. ^[2]

References

1. Yamdena at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Mettler, Heidi & Anton (1990). Yamdena phonology. Workpapers in Indonesian Languages and Cultures 8: Pattimura University. pp. 29–79.

Further reading

• Visser, Eline (2024). "A grammar sketch of Yamdena and an introduction to its corpus". Language Documentation & Conservation. 18. University of Hawaii Press: 67–108. hdl: 10125/74789 . ISSN   1934-5275.