The Dani are Paupuans and the language in all of the cultures in New Guinea were called Papuan, or non-Austronesian. "Dani" is a linguistic group and not a political or social unit. The origin of "Dani" is uncertain and it is derived from the Moni or Uhunduni term "Ndani" which is used for the Western Dani who live in the East.
Almost all of the languages that were spoken in the Highlands Districts of East New Guinea belonged to a single phylum, which was the East New Guinea Phylum. Dani was considered to be closely related to the Stock.
The four language families of the West New Guinea (Micro-) Phylum were
1. Wissel Lakes-Kemandoga Language Family
2. Uhunduni-Amung Language Family
3. Dem Language Family
4. Greater Dani Language Family
The Greater Dani Language Family included the Wano Subfamily.
The Central Dani Subfamily includes the Western Dani language and the Grand Valley Dani language. In addition, the people in the Dugum neighborhood speak a dialect of the Grand Valley Dani language.
There are four sub-groups of the Dani language that have been identified by linguists. The first one is the Lower-Grand Valley Dani, which consists of 20,000 speakers. The second one is the Mid-Grand Valley Dani, consisting of 50,000 speakers. The third is the Upper-Grand Valley Dani is 20,000 speakers and finally the fourth is the Lani or Western Dani, consisting of 180,000 speakers.
Almost all of the languages that were spoken in the Highlands Districts of East New Guinea belonged to a single phylum, which was the East New Guinea Phylum. Dani was considered to be closely related to the Stock.
The four language families of the West New Guinea (Micro-) Phylum were
1. Wissel Lakes-Kemandoga Language Family
2. Uhunduni-Amung Language Family
3. Dem Language Family
4. Greater Dani Language Family
The Greater Dani Language Family included the Wano Subfamily.
The Central Dani Subfamily includes the Western Dani language and the Grand Valley Dani language. In addition, the people in the Dugum neighborhood speak a dialect of the Grand Valley Dani language.
There are four sub-groups of the Dani language that have been identified by linguists. The first one is the Lower-Grand Valley Dani, which consists of 20,000 speakers. The second one is the Mid-Grand Valley Dani, consisting of 50,000 speakers. The third is the Upper-Grand Valley Dani is 20,000 speakers and finally the fourth is the Lani or Western Dani, consisting of 180,000 speakers.
In the Dani language, they
only differentiate between two types of colors, cool/dark and warm/light. The
colors that are represented as cool/dark are blue, green and black and are
referred to as “mili”. The warm/light colors are red, yellow and white,
referred to as “mola”. This shows a link between intellect and language.
There are 3 different verbal stems which are used in indirect constructions to express a relation of a person or thing that benefits from the action of the verb. For example, "give", "put", "see" and "hit".
Heider, Karl G.
1970. The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea. Chicago:
Aldine Pub. accessed November 10
2010 Dani Tribe - Indigenous to Western New Guinea, Electronic Document.
http://www.therainforests.info/people/dani-tribe.html
accessed October 30
Kottak, Conrad P.
2012 Mirror for Humanity: A concise
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.
New York: McGraw-Hill.
There are 3 different verbal stems which are used in indirect constructions to express a relation of a person or thing that benefits from the action of the verb. For example, "give", "put", "see" and "hit".
Heider, Karl G.
1970. The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea. Chicago:
Aldine Pub. accessed November 10
2010 Dani Tribe - Indigenous to Western New Guinea, Electronic Document.
http://www.therainforests.info/people/dani-tribe.html
accessed October 30
Kottak, Conrad P.
2012 Mirror for Humanity: A concise
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.
New York: McGraw-Hill.
Language of the Dani Tribe Reflection
ReplyDeleteResearching about the language in the Dani Tribe of Papua, New Guinea allowed me, a student of anthropology, to realize the universal traits of language. In the Dani Tribe, there were different language families that were used for different types of people based on their location.
I discovered relation to the 'prescriptive linguistics' as it judges if forms meet certain criteria or the standard dialects. The variety of dialects were based on location in the valleys, which shows how there is a criteria for certain dialects.
I recognized great awareness in a tribe that was so unique to my own culture and it created linguistic relativity that I or anyone else, cannot judge the differences of a known language to an unknown language. It brings back the concept of cultural relativism that one should not contain the ethnocentric view of believing one's culture is superior to others.
According to the linguistic relativity hypothesis, we construct our understanding of the world through language. In addition, in psychological analysis, mental processes consist of human intelligence, perception, language, attention, thinking/problem solving, or memory. Mental representations are schemas, which are cognitive structures that organize our knowledge of objects, events, others, and ourselves.
The use of colors in the Dani language is fascinating because in English there are names for ten basic colors (red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, black, white, grey, pink), but in the Dani language only two names describe all of the colors (black and dark, and white and light). This shows a difference in perception between cultures and how reality is viewed differently in something as simple as color.
According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, different languages produce different ways of thinking. The hypothesis argues that the grammatical categories of particular languages lead the speaker of that language to think a certain way. Reflecting on the Dani Tribe, I realized that their way of thinking of colors are different to our perception of colors.
Please, I am looking for any dictionary with Dany language available. I really appreciated if you could help me with that. Look forward to hearing from you. Many thanks
ReplyDeleteMery