Burum language

Burum (also known as Yaknge or Somba-Siawari after its two dialects and Mindik in the language itself) is a Papuan language spoken in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. Its closest related language is Borong (also known as Kosorong).

Phonology

Consonants

  • /p, t, k/ are aspirated word initially and unreleased word finally. Between vowels, they are /w, r, h/.
  • /kʷ/ and /gʷ/ are rarely [kp], [gb] in some dialects.
  • /ɣ/ is [h] word initially.

Vowels

Burum also has 14 diphthongs: /iɑ/, /iu/, /ei/, /eu/, /əi/, /əu/, /oi/, /oe/, /ou/, /ɑi/, /ɑu/, /ui/, /ue/, and /uɑ/.

Orthography

  • ⟨f⟩ occurs in loanwords.
  • Weakened /p, t, k/ are written ⟨w, r, h⟩, as pronounced.

Notes

References

  • Usher, Timothy. "Bulum River". newguineaworld. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  • Olkkonen, Soini (1994). "Organised Phonology Data" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.

Further reading


Uses material from the Wikipedia article Burum language, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.