| Dom | |
| Nativename: | Dom [<sup>n</sup>dom˩˥] |
| States: | Papua New Guinea |
| Region: | Gumine District and Sinasina District of the Simbu Province |
| Speakers: | 16,000 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Fam1: | Trans–New Guinea |
| Fam2: | Chimbu–Wahgi |
| Fam3: | Chimbu |
| Fam4: | Eastern |
| Dia1: | Era |
| Dia2: | Non Ku |
| Dia3: | Ilai Ku |
| Iso3: | doa |
| Glotto: | domm1246 |
| Glottorefname: | Dom |
Dom is a Trans–New Guinea language of the Eastern Group of the Chimbu family, spoken in the Gumine and Sinasina Districts of Chimbu Province and in some other isolated settlements in the western highlands of Papua New Guinea.
The Dom people live in an agricultural society, which has a tribal, patrilocal and patrilineal organization. There is only small dialectal differentiation among the clans. The predominant religion is Christianity.
There are three different languages spoken by Dom speakers alongside Dom: Tok Pisin, Kuman and English. Tok Pisin serves as the Papuan lingua franca. Kuman, which is a closely related eastern Chimbu language of high social and cultural prestige, functions as the prestige language used in ceremonies and official situations. School lessons are mostly held in English.
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| e~i | ˦de 'faeces'~˦di 'axe' | |
| o~u | ˦kol 'part~˦kul 'grass' | |
| e~o~a | ˥˩pel 'to dig'~˥˩pol 'to pull out'~˥˩pal 'to skin' | |
| a~a: | ˥˩bna 'brother'~˥˩bna: 'frame over the fireplace' |
Vowel lengthening in a contour pitched syllable has allophonic character.
| Vowels | default realisation | contour pitched syllable | word final | special context | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| e | [e]~[ɛ] | [e:] | [ə],Ø | [o] in [+labial](C)_# [i] |
|
| i | [i] | [i:] | [i] | [i] | |
| o | [o]~[ɔ] | [o:]~[oɔ] | [o] | [o] | |
| u | [u] | [u:] | [u] | [u] | |
| a | [a] | [a:] | [a] | [a] |
italic=no|iu,io,iauo
eu,ei,eao
au,ai,aea:
Source:
The Dom consonant system consists of 13 indigenous and 3 loan consonants.
| bilabial | alveolar | alveopalatal | velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nasals | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| plosive/ affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | (pronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| lateral | pronounced as /ink/ | (pronounced as /ink/) | ||||
| flap | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
˩˥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'
| /p/ | /t/ | /k/ | /b/ | /| /g/ | /m/ | /n/ | (/c/) | (/j/) | /s/ | /l/ | /(ʟ)/ | /r/ | /w/ | /y/ | | |
| default realization | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /[{{IPAlink|ŋ}}{{IPAlink|g}}]/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
| free alternation | ([d(i)]) | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||||
| [pp] | [t],[tt] | [kk] | [b],[bb] | [d],[dd] | [g],[gg] | [m] | [n] | [tʃ] | [j],[jj] | [s],[ʃ] | Ø | Ø | ([ɾ]) | Ø | Ø |
| V_V | pronounced as /link/ | ([t]) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/, [ŋg] | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | ||||||||||
| other contexts | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | [t^]/[d^] | Ø |
Source:
Dom is a tonal language. Each word carries one of three tones as shown in the examples below:
wam˥˩ (personal name) ~ wam˩ 'to hitch.' ~ wam˥ 'son..'
˥˩komna 'vegetable' kom˥ na˩ or kom˥ ɨ na˩
Dom is a suffixing language. Morpheme boundaries between person-number and mood morphemes can be combined.
Source:
Noun Phrase
| attributive noun phrases possessor marker relative clause noun classifier | head noun | numerals adjektives appositions | demonstratives |
If a noun phrase includes a demonstrative element, it has always the last position of the phrase:
Adjective Phrase
| head adjective | intensifier |
Postpositional Phrase
| noun | head postposition |
Verbal Phrase
| subject (object) | object (subject) | adverbials conditional adverbial clauses final adverbial clauses | head verb | AUX mutual knowledge marker enclitics | demonstratives |
There are no zero-place predicates in Dom. As a subject ˩˥kamn 'world' is used:
Source:
The predominant constituent order is SOV. Only the predicate has to be expressed overtly. An exception are absolute-topic type clauses, which consist only of one noun phrase.
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 | object | verb |
| extrasentential | subject | verb |
| object (topicalzied) | subject | verb |
Source:
Dom has three different person-number-systems: for pronouns, possessive suffixes on nouns and cross reference markers on verbs.
| general (excl) | ˥na | ˥en |
|---|---|---|
| non-singular (excl) | ˥no | |
| non-singular(incl) | ˩˥none | |
| non-singular | ˥ne |
| singular | -na | -n | -m | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| non-singular | -ne | |||
| singular | -i~-Ø | -n | -m | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| dual | -pl | -ipl | ||
| plural(three or more) | -pn | -im | ||
The marking of dual and plural is not obligatory in all cases but depends on the sem ±human ±animate:
| +human | -human | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| +animate | almost obligatory | optional/uncommon | |
| -animate | Ø | scarcely used |
Source:
Dom has an unmarked non-future tense and a marked future tense.
Non-future tense is used, if
Future tense is marked by the suffix -na (-na~-ra~-a) and is used, if
A predicate is negated by the suffix -kl. The preceding negation particle ˥ta is optional.
Source:
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:
A noun can be repeated to express the following relations:
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., which did not exist in the Dom language before:
But recently some already existing Dom words have begun to be replaced by Tok Pisin lexical items:
Source:
Dom has a spatial referencing demonstrative system, i.e. there are certain demonstrative lexemes bearing information about the spatial relation of the referred object to the speaker alongside neutral demonstratives. A Dom speaker also uses different lexemes for visible and invisible objects. In the case of visible objects, the speaker locates it on a horizontal and vertical axis as to whether it is proximal, medium or distal from the speaker and on the same level, uphill or downhill.
Demonstratives with spatial alignment:
| proximal | medium | distal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| without vertical alignment | ˥ya | ˥˩sipi | ||
| level | ˥yale | ˥˩ile | ˩˥ile | |
| uphill | ˥yape | ˥˩ipe | ˩˥ipe | |
| downhill | ˥yame | ˥˩ime | ˩˥ime |
For invisible objects one must be aware of the cause for its invisibility. If it is invisible because the object is behind the speaker, a proximal demonstrative is used. Objects obscured behind an obstacle are referred to with distal demonstratives and invisible objects by their nature with downhill demonstratives. Invisible objects, that are very far away, are referred to with the downhill distal demonstrative ˩˥ime.
SRD:subordinativeMUT:mutual knowledge