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The Ata language, also known as Pele-Ata after its two dialects, or Wasi, is a Papuan language spoken on New Britain island, Papua New Guinea. It appears to be related to neighboring Anêm, and possibly also to Yélî Dnye in a proposed Yele-West New Britain family. There are about 2000 speakers.

Ata is spoken in West Pomio-Mamusi Rural LLG, East New Britain Province, and in Talasea District, West New Britain Province.

Dialects

According to Yanagida (2004), there are two dialects of Ata, a Lower dialect spoken in the lowlands and an Upper dialect spoken in the mountains. The Lower dialect is spoken in Bialla Rural LLG, West New Britain Province, while the Upper dialect is spoken mostly in West Pomio-Mamusi Rural LLG, East New Britain Province:

Lower dialect (in Bialla Rural LLG, West New Britain Province):

• Kiava (Old Kiava) (5°25′50″S 151°02′49″E / 5.43047°S 151.047°E / -5.43047; 151.047 (Kiawa))
• Korovasi
• Malasi (5°27′56″S 150°58′41″E / 5.46557°S 150.978°E / -5.46557; 150.978 (Malasi))
• Milikina (Elobe) (5°34′06″S 150°53′31″E / 5.56842°S 150.892°E / -5.56842; 150.892 (Elobe))
• Mulusi
• Ole
• Sale (Gogosi) (5°31′43″S 150°57′47″E / 5.52855°S 150.963°E / -5.52855; 150.963 (Sale))
• Sege (5°31′47″S 150°55′23″E / 5.52977°S 150.923°E / -5.52977; 150.923 (Sege))
• Silanga (5°33′16″S 150°50′56″E / 5.55438°S 150.849°E / -5.55438; 150.849 (Silanga Mission))

Upper dialect (in West Pomio-Mamusi Rural LLG, East New Britain Province, unless noted otherwise):

• Sipa (Bauka), West New Britain (5°35′44″S 150°53′13″E / 5.59544°S 150.887°E / -5.59544; 150.887 (Sipa))
• Uasilau , West New Britain (5°34′58″S 150°53′02″E / 5.58284°S 150.884°E / -5.58284; 150.884 (Uasilau))
• Kaikou (5°39′08″S 150°59′32″E / 5.652238°S 150.992254°E / -5.652238; 150.992254 (Kaikou))
• Lavugi (5°38′28″S 150°58′03″E / 5.641182°S 150.967552°E / -5.641182; 150.967552 (Lavugi))
• Luge, West New Britain (5°33′45″S 150°51′04″E / 5.56239°S 150.851°E / -5.56239; 150.851 (Luge))
• Ti (5°38′41″S 151°00′01″E / 5.644822°S 151.000275°E / -5.644822; 151.000275 (Kukulu))
• Yauyau (5°37′38″S 150°57′35″E / 5.627284°S 150.959744°E / -5.627284; 150.959744 (Yauyau))
• Kukulu (5°38′41″S 151°00′01″E / 5.644822°S 151.000275°E / -5.644822; 151.000275 (Kukulu))

Both the lower and upper dialects are spoken in the settlement of Silanga.

There are some lexical differences between the dialects. Some examples are listed below.

gloss	Upper Ata	Lower Ata
rain	uali	laʔiua
sweet potato	totoʔo	kelatu
cassava	mio	mio, mioxa
throw something	paxele	pei
yes	iou	ani
the day before yesterday	malakaumei	malaʔo
2nd person dual independent pronoun	ngolou	ngongou
3rd person dual independent pronoun	olou	ilou

Phonology

Phonology of the Ata language:

/s/ is pronounced as alveolo-palatal before /i/, /x/ is voiced as when occurring intervocalically.

A word-initial /i/ is realized as a , and a word-initial /u/ becomes a when preceding /o/ or /ɑ/.

Noun classes

Ata makes use of noun classes, some of which are:

• Class 1 nouns: stationary and function in a state of relative stagnancy
• Class 2 nouns: portable and function in a state of relative motion
• Class 3 nouns: relating to the body’s internal needs

Below are some Ata noun class paradigms, using the noun roots lavo’o ‘stone’ and lexe ‘song’ as examples:

root	lavo’o	/stone/	‘stone’
Class 1	lavo'o-silo	/stone-my/	‘my stone to be used for a house’
Class 2	lavo'o-xeni	/stone-my/	‘my stone to be used for breaking nuts’
Class 3	lavo'o-xo	/stone-my/	‘my stone for a stone oven’

root	lexe	/song/	‘song’
Class 1	lexe-silo	/song-my/	‘a song to be sung for me’
Class 2	lexe-xeni	/song-my/	‘the song I sing’
Class 3	lexe-xo	/song-my/	‘the song about me’

Vocabulary

Selected basic vocabulary items in Ata:

gloss	Ata
bird	ngiala
blood	sialuxu
bone	xine
breast	susu
ear	sangalie
eat	’ie
egg	atolu
eye	iei
fire	navu
give	iti; losie
go	lai
ground	lia
leg	tava'a
louse	meni
man	aliko
moon	so'io
name	uala
one	vile
road, path	vote'i
see	maisou
sky	loxotolo
stone	lavo'o
sun	aso
tongue	levexe
teeth	anaxu ilaanu (anaxu = 'mouth')
tree	aiinu; ovu
two	tamei
water	lexa
woman	sema

See also

• East Papuan languages

References

1. Ata at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
3. ^ Yanagida, Tatsuya. 2004. Socio-historic overview of the Ata language, an endangered Papuan language in New Britain, Papua New Guinea. In Shibata Norio and Shionoya, Toru (eds.), Kan minami Taiheiyoo no gengo 3 , 61-94. Suita: Faculty of Informatics, Osaka Gakuin University.
4. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
5. Hashimoto, Kazuo (June 1992). Ata (Pele Ata, Wasi) Language [ATA] Kimbe – West New Britain Province (PDF). Organised Phonology Data: SIL.
6. ^ Stebbins, Tonya; Evans, Bethwyn; Terrill, Angela (2018). "The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia". 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. 775–894. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
7. Hashimoto (2008)

Further reading

• Hashimoto, Kazuo (2008), Ata-English Dictionary with English-Ata Finderlist, Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics

• West New Britain languages
• Languages of East New Britain Province
• Languages of West New Britain Province