Doromu, or Doromu-Koki, is a Manubaran language spoken in the Papuan Peninsula in 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.
Phonology
Doromu has 17 phonemes: 12 are consonants and 5 are vowels.
Consonants Below is a chart of Doromu consonants.
Labial Coronal Velar Stop Nasal Fricative Tap Approximant
Vowels Below is a chart of Doromu vowels.
Front Back High Mid Low
Orthography
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 YLowercase letters a b d e f g i k m n o r s t u v yIPA
Verbs In Doromu verbs may have suffixes, which affect tense, aspect, mood, or switch reference.
Tense affixes Past tense First person singular is indicated by -(y)aka Second and Third person singular are indicated by -(y)o First person plural is indicated by -(y)afa Second and Third person plural are indicated by -(y)adi
Present tense First person singular is indicated by -da Second person singular is indicated by -sa Third person singular is indicated by -do First person plural is indicated by -sifa Second and Third person plural are indicated by -dedi
Past tense First person singular is indicated by -gida Second person singular is indicated by -giya Third person singular is indicated by -go First person plural is indicated by -gifa Second and Third person plural are indicated by -gedi
Colors
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'.
Numbers
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)
References
Further reading Bradshaw, Robert L. (2012). Doromu-Koki Grammar Sketch. Data Papers on Papua New Guinea Languages 58. Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea: Summer Institute of Linguistics.