Yetfa and Biksi (Biaksi; Inisine[2]) are dialects of a language spoken in Jetfa District, Pegunungan Bintang Regency, Highland Papua, Indonesia, and across the border in Papua New Guinea.
Ross (2005), following Laycock & Z’Graggen (1975), places Biksi in its own branch of the Sepik family, but there is little data to base a classification on.
The similarities noted by Laycock are sporadic and may simply be loans; Ross based his classification on pronouns, but they are dissimilar enough for the connection to be uncertain.
[3] Pronouns from Ross (2005): Pronouns from Kim (2005), as quoted in Foley (2018):[2] Basic vocabulary of Yetfa from Kim (2006), quoted in Foley (2018):[4][2] The following basic vocabulary words are from Conrad & Dye (1975)[5] and Voorhoeve (1975),[6] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[7] There is very little sentence data for Yetfa.
give-TNS‘She gave money to my father.’The Yetfa tense suffix -(y)o is also present in Tofanma.