Burum language

Wikipedia

Burum
Mindik
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionHuon Peninsula, Morobe Province
Native speakers
(9,000 cited 2000 census)[1]
Dialects
  • Somba
  • Siawari
Language codes
ISO 639-3bmu
Glottologburu1306

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).[2]

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants[3]
LabialAlveolarPalatalVelar
plainlab.
Plosiveunvoiced ptk
voiced bdg
Affricateunvoiced ts
voiced dz
Nasal mnŋ
Trill r
Fricative fsɣ
Approximant ljw
  • /p, t, k/ are aspirated word initially and unreleased word finally. Between vowels, they are /w, r, h/.[4]
  • /kʷ/ and /gʷ/ are rarely [kp], [gb] in some dialects.[4]
  • /ɣ/ is [h] word initially.[4]

Vowels

Monophthongs[5]
FrontCentralBack
Close iu
Mid eəo
Open ɑ

Burum also has 14 diphthongs: /iɑ/, /iu/, /ei/, /eu/, /əi/, /əu/, /oi/, /oe/, /ou/, /ɑi/, /ɑu/, /ui/, /ue/, and /uɑ/.[6]

Orthography

Orthography[3]
Uppercase letters ABDEFGHIJKLMNŊOPQRSTUWGwYZÖ
Lowercase letters abdefghijklmnŋopqrstuwgwyzö
IPA /ɑ//b//d//e//f//ɡ//ɣ//i//dz//k//l//m//n//ŋ//o//p////r//s//t//u//w////j//t͡s//ə/
  • f occurs in loanwords.[4]
  • Weakened /p, t, k/ are written w, r, h, as pronounced.[4]

Notes

  1. Burum at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Usher.
  3. 1 2 Olkkonen 1994, p. 1.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Olkkonen 1994, p. 4.
  5. Olkkonen 1994, p. 2.
  6. Olkkonen 1994, p. 3.

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