Dom language

[6]

i u

e o

a a:

Vowel lengthening in a contour pitched syllable has allophonic character.

iu,io,ia uo

eu,ei,ea o

au,ai,ae a:

The Dom consonant system consists of 13 indigenous and 3 loan consonants.

The phonemes /c/[ts], /j/[ⁿdʒ]and /ʟ/[ʟ] are loan phonemes and unstable in use.

˩˥su 'two' ~ ˩˥tu 'thick'

~ ˩˥du 'squeeze'

~ ˩˥nu 'aim at'

~ ˩˥ku 'hold in the mouth'

~ ˩˥gu 'shave'

~ ˩˥pu 'blow'

~ ˩˥mu 'his/her back'

~ ˩˥yu 'harvest taro'

Variants can be determined by the factors of dialect or age. Certain exceptions show archaic variants, for example the existence of intervocal [b] in the word ˥˩iba 'but' or the otherwise non-existent sequence [lk], which is used only by elderly people or in official situations. Brackets "()" show, that the allophone is used only in loanwords.

wam˥˩ (personal name) ~ wam˩ 'to hitch.3SG' ~ wam˥ 'son3SG.POSS'

• [ɨ] is optionally inserted between consonants:

˥˩komna 'vegetable' kom˥ na˩ or kom˥ ɨ na˩

Noun Phrase

• elements preceding the head:

• attributive NP

• possessive marker

• relative clause

• noun classifier

• elements following the head:

• numerals

• adjectives

• appositions

• demonstratives

If a noun phrase includes a demonstrative element, it has always the last position of the phrase:

Adjective Phrase

Postpositional Phrase

Verbal Phrase

• elements preceding the head verb:

• subject:

• subject-object:

• adverbial

• final clause

• elements following the head verb:

• auxiliars:

• mutual knowledge marker

• demonstratives

There are no zero-place predicates in Dom. As a subject ˩˥kamn 'world' is used:

The predominant constituent order is ‘’’S-O-V’’’. Only the predicate has to be expressed overtly. An exception are absolute-topic type clauses, which consist only of one noun phrase.[11]

• Three Place Predicate Order[12]

In the case of a three place predicate the recipient noun always follows the gift noun:

The only position which can be optionally filled is the sentence topic. Possible constituents can be the subject of an equational sentence (default), an extrasentential or a topicalized constituent:

• subject in an equational sentence (default)

• extrasentential:

• topicalized constituent:

Dom has three different person-number-systems: for pronouns, possessive suffixes on nouns and cross reference markers on verbs.

The marking of dual and plural is not obligatory in all cases but depends on the sem ±human ±animate:

Dom has an unmarked non-future tense and a marked future tense.

Non-future tense is used, if

• the event follows immediately
• the event is in the past

Future tense is marked by the suffix -na (-na~-ra~-a)[15] and is used, if

• the event is part of the speaker's plan for the next day
• the event is the speaker's intention and it is possible for the speaker to go through with it
• the event describes a potentiality or a permanent quality

[16]

A predicate is negated by the suffix -kl. The preceding negation particle ˥ta is optional.

Noun classifiers are lexical items preceding a noun with a more specified meaning. Phonetically and syntactically they form one unit with the following noun and thus differ from an apposition, which consists of two or more phonetic constituents. Noun classifiers can have the following functions:

• no obvious lexical specification:

• specifying a polysemoous word:

• explaining loanwords:

A noun can be repeated to express the following relations:[18]

• reciprocity

• plurality

Tok Pisin is the main source for lexical borrowing, borrowings from English are often made indirectly via Tok Pisin. Borrowed lexemes mostly refer to new cultural objects and concepts as well as proper names and high numbers.,[19] which did not exist in the Dom language before:

• kar ’car’
• skul 'school, to study'
• akn 'Mount Hagen'
• andret 'hundred'

But recently some already existing Dom words have begun to be replaced by Tok Pisin lexical items:

• wanpla for dom tenanta 'one'
• blat for dom miam 'blood'
• stori for dom kapore-el- 'to tell a story'