Ethnicity Dani | Glottolog gran1246 | |
Region Highlands of Irian Jaya Native speakers (90,000 cited 1990–1996) Language family Trans–New Guinea
West Trans–New Guinea
Irian Highlands ?
Dani languages
Dani proper
Grand Valley Dani ISO 639-3 Variously:
dni – Lower
dnt – Mid
dna – Upper
hap – Hupla | ||
Grand Valley Dani, or simply Dani, is one of the most populous Papuan languages in Indonesian New Guinea. The Dani people live in the Baliem Valley of the Western Highlands.
Dialectical differentiation is great enough that Ethnologue assigns separate codes to three varieties:
Lower Grand Valley Dani contains subdialects Lower Grand Valley Hitigima (Dani-Kurima, Kurima), Upper Bele, Lower Bele, Lower Kimbin (Kibin), and Upper Pyramid. Hupla, traditionally considered a separate language, is closer to Lower Grand Valley than the varieties of Grand Valley Dani are to each other.
The Dani language differentiates only two basic colours, mili for cool/dark shades such as blue, green, and black, and mola for warm/light colours such as red, yellow, and white. This trait makes it an interesting field of research for language psychologists, such as Eleanor Rosch, investigating the Whorf hypothesis.