Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
Yahadian, also known as Yabin-Yahadian, is spoken by 1,150 people (2004) living in three villages, Mugim, Yahadian and Kais or Kampong Baru, on the Metamani and Kais Rivers near the southwest coast of the Bird's Head peninsula in the Sorong Selatan regency of Indonesia's West Papua province (Voorhoeve 1975: 34, Berry and Berry 1987: 92, 98, de Vries 2004: 129, 143.) According to de Vries, Yahadian is mutually intelligible with Konda immediately to the northwest.
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Voorhoeve (1975) …
Berry and Berry (1987) survey notes, typological sketch and (pp. 88-117) 155 comparative terms for Yahadian of Mugim village
de Vries (2004: 143-150) grammar sketch and 222 comparative terms for Yahadian of Mugim village
De Vries (2004: 144) gives 21 consonants and 8 vowels for Yahadian as follows:
| m | n | ŋ | |||
| p | t | ts | c | k | |
| b | d | dʒ | ɟ | g | |
| ɸ | x | h | |||
| β | ɣ | ||||
| r | |||||
| w | ɾ |
| i | u | |
| e | o | |
| ɛ | ə | ɔ |
| a |
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De Vries (2004: 147-148) gives Yahadian pronouns in two case forms as follows:
| nominative | possessive | |
| 1 sg. | 'ne(-nigi) | 'ne-ne |
| 2 sg. | 'e(-rigi) | 'e-re |
| 3 sg. | 'mi(-gigi), wo | mi'gene |
| 1 pl. | 'na(-gigi) | na(m) |
| 2 pl. | 'ad(ʒ)igi | 'adi |
| 3 pl. | 'miginaigi, wo | 'migina |
There is no distinction between alienable and inalienable possession. Comparison of de Vries' (2004: 144-147) vocabulary to that given in Berry and Berry (1987: 99-117) as well as to Konda shows a prefix /dV-/ to be present on body parts; however its not clear which if any pronominal form it might historically represent.
Yahadian lacks the masculine and feminine gender suffixes which characterize other South Bird's Head languages. Plural is distinguished on kin terms by a suffix /o/ which is typically stressed (de Vries 2004: 149-150):
| singular | plural | |
| uncle | aj | aj-o |
| mother | mam | ma'm-o |
| nephew | bor | bo'r-o |
| aunt | 'kaka | ka'ka-o |
| father | gej | ge'j-o |
In the brief presentation of de Vries (2004: 148-149,) Yahadian verbal inflection appears to be very simple, with three tense forms undifferentiated by person as follows:
| past | -e |
| present | -ta |
| future | -ome |