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).

Burum
Mindik
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Huon Peninsula, Morobe Province
Native speakers	(9,000 cited 2000 census)
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Finisterre–Huon Huon Western Huon Burum
Dialects	Somba Siawari
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bmu
Glottolog	buru1306

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
					plain	lab.
Plosive	unvoiced	p	t		k	kʷ
	voiced	b	d		g	gʷ
Affricate	unvoiced		ts
	voiced		dz
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Trill			r
Fricative		f	s		ɣ
Approximant			l	j		w

• /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

Monophthongs

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open			ɑ

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

Orthography

Orthography

Uppercase letters	A	B	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	Ŋ	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	W	Gw	Y	Z	Ö
Lowercase letters	a	b	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	ŋ	o	p	q	r	s	t	u	w	gw	y	z	ö
IPA	/ɑ/	/b/	/d/	/e/	/f/	/ɡ/	/ɣ/	/i/	/dz/	/k/	/l/	/m/	/n/	/ŋ/	/o/	/p/	/kʷ/	/r/	/s/	/t/	/u/	/w/	/gʷ/	/j/	/t͡s/	/ə/

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

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

• Olkkonen, Kaija; Olkkonen, Soini (2007). Somba-Siawari (Burum Mindik)—English dictionary (in Burum, Kâte, and English).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
• Olkkonen, Soini (1990) [1986]. The Clitics of the Somba-Siawari Language (PDF). 2nd International Conference on Papuan Linguistics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
• "Burum-Mindik Swadesh List".