Dorig language

Not to be confused with Doric Greek or Doric dialect (Scotland).
Dorig
Native to Vanuatu
Region Gaua
Native speakers
 300  (2012)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 wwo
Glottolog weta1242[2]

Dorig (sometimes called Wetamut) is an Oceanic language spoken on Gaua island in Vanuatu.

Its 300 speakers live mostly in the village of Dorig (IPA: [ⁿdʊˈriɰ]), on the south coast of Gaua. Smaller speaker communities can be found in the villages of Qteon (east coast) and Qtevut (west coast).

Dorig's immediate neighbours are Koro and Mwerlap.[3]

Phonology

Dorig has 8 phonemic vowels. These include 7 short monophthongs /i ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ u/ and one long vowel /aː/.[4]

Dorig vowels
  Front Back
Close i u
Near-close ɪ ʊ
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a ∙ aː

The phonotactic template for a syllable in Dorig is: /CCVC/ — e.g. /rk͡pʷa/ ‘woman’;/ŋ͡mʷsar/ ‘poor’; /wrɪt/ ‘octopus’. Remarkably, the consonant clusters of these /CCVC/ syllables are not constrained by the Sonority Sequencing Principle.[5]

References

  1. ↑ François (2012): 88).
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Wetamut". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ List of Banks islands languages.
  4. ↑ François (2005:445)
  5. ↑ François (2010:407)

Bibliography


External links