Doromu, or Doromu-Koki, is a Manubaran language spoken in the "Bird's Tail" of Papua New Guinea. Doromu has about 1,500 native speakers with half of them living in the capital, Port Moresby. It has three varieties: Koki, Kokila and Koriko.[2]
| Doromu | |
|---|---|
| Doromu-Koki | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Central Province |
Native speakers | 1,500 (2006)[1] |
Language family | Trans–New Guinea
|
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kqc |
| Glottolog | doro1266 |
Doromu has 17 phonemes: 12 are consonants and 5 are vowels.[3]
Below is a chart of Doromu consonants.
| Labial | Coronal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | b | tʰ d | kʰ q g |
| Nasal | m | n | |
| Fricative | f β | s | |
| Tap | ɾ | ||
| Approximant | j |
Below is a chart of Doromu vowels.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Mid | ɛ [ɛ] [e] | o |
| Low | a |
From March 18 to March 25 of 2002 in Kasonomu village the current orthography was developed during the Doromu Alphabet Design Workshop. The orthography developed from this workshop were discussed with various areas in the language group and were agreed upon. One problem was how borrowed words with letters not contained in the Doromu orthography would be dealt with. The proposed solution from the native speakers was to spell the loan words as they are spelled in their original language.
| Uppercase letters | A | B | D | E | F | G | I | K | M | N | O | R | S | T | U | V | Y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowercase letters | a | b | d | e | f | g | i | k | m | n | o | r | s | t | u | v | y |
| IPA | /a/ | /b/ | /d/ | /ɛ/ | /f/ | /ɡ/ | /i/ | /k/ | /m/ | /n/ | /o/ | /ɾ/ | /s/ | /t/ | /u/ | /ʋ/ | /j/ |
In Doromu verbs may have suffixes, which affect tense, aspect, mood, or switch reference.
Past Tense
Present Tense
Past Tense
Below is a table of the names of different colors in Doromu.
| Doromu | English |
|---|---|
| blu | blue |
| bora | yellow, orange |
| braun | brown |
| feo | white |
| gabu | black, blue, brown |
| kaka | red, purple |
| vegu | green |
The words 'blu' and 'braun' are borrowed from another language. The word 'kaka' can also mean ripe. While 'vegu' is also a noun which means 'life'. 'Kamaidaforo' is the word meaning 'colorful, attractive, glittery, sparkling'.
| English | Doromu | Literal Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| one | yokoi | |
| two | remanu | |
| three | regode | |
| four | vana raro | hand line |
| five | vana berou autu | hand side empty |
| six | vana berou autu yokoi maka | hand side empty one only |
| seven | vana berou autu remanu | hand side empty two |
| eight | vana berou autu regode | hand side empty three |
| nine | vana berou autu vana raro | hand side empty hand line |
| ten | vana ufo | hand clap (two hands together) |
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Papuan language families (Palmer 2018 classification) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trans-New Guinea subgroups |
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| Eastern Nusantara families and isolates |
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| Bird's Head Peninsula families and isolates |
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| Northern Western New Guinea families and isolates | |||||||||||
| Central Western New Guinea families and isolates |
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| Sepik-Ramu basin families and isolates |
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| Gulf of Papua and southern New Guinea families and isolates | |||||||||||
| Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands families and isolates | |||||||||||
| Rossel Island isolate |
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| Proposed groupings |
| ||||||||||
| Proto-language |
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Southeast Papuan languages | |
|---|---|
| Koiarian | |
| Kwalean | |
| Manubaran | |
| Yareban | |
| Mailuan | |
| Dagan | |