| Grand Valley Dani | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in | Highlands of Irian Jaya |
| Ethnicity | Dani |
| Native speakers | 90,000 (1990–1996) |
| Language family |
Trans–New Guinea
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | variously: dni – Lower dnt – Mid dna – Upper |
Grand Valley Dani, or simply Dani,[1] 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.
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.