Dom language

[2] The Dom people live in an agricultural society, which has a tribal, patrilocal and patrilineal organization.

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.

Each word carries one of three tones as shown in the examples below: wam˥˩ (personal name) ~ wam˩ 'to hitch.3SG' ~ wam˥ 'son.3SG.POSS' Dom is a suffixing language.

Source:[8] Noun Phrase possessor marker relative clause noun classifier adjektives appositions yalmaniDEMkalthingyal i kalman DEM thing'the thing of the man'nayoubola-npig-2SG.POSSna bola-nyou pig-2SG.POSS'your pig'ohand.3SG.POSSpalbybin-gwaproduce-3SG.SRDkalthingo pal bin-gwa kalhand.3SG.POSS by produce-3SG.SRD thing'thing produced by hand'bolapigsipsipsheepbola sipsippig sheep'sheep'yalmansutwoyal suman two'two men'galchildblbiggal blchild big'big child'gegirlapalwomangalchildge apal galgirl woman child'girl, female child'yalmaniDEMyal iman DEM'this man'If a noun phrase includes a demonstrative element, it has always the last position of the phrase: yalmansutwoiDEMyal su iman two DEM'the two men'Adjective Phrase ertreewaigoodwontrulytaaer wai won tatree good truly a'a very good tree'Postpositional Phrase m-namother-1SG.POSSbolwithm-na bolmother-1SG.POSS with'with my mother'Verbal Phrase (object) (subject) conditional adverbial clauses final adverbial clauses mutual knowledge marker enclitics yalmansutwoal-ipkestand up-2/3DU.INDyal su al-ipkeman two {stand up-2/3DU.IND}'two men stand up'na1.EXCLkeepasweet.potatone-keeat-1SG.INDna keepa ne-ke1.EXCL sweet.potato eat-1SG.IND'I eat a sweet potato'orpl-dquicklyu-ocome-2SG.IMPorpl-d u-oquickly come-2SG.IMP'come quickly'ertoilainsidena-lgo-1SG.FUTdQu-kecome-1SG.INDer ila na-l d u-keto inside go-1SG.FUT Q come-1SG.IND'I came to go inside'bl-nhead-2SG.POSSdeburn.INFblaburstd-na-wdae(say)-FUT-3SG.MUTbl-n de bla d-na-wdaehead-2SG.POSS burn.INF burst (say)-FUT-3SG.MUT'Your head will be burnt and explode (as a matter of course)'mol-mestay-1SG.IND=krae=MUTmol-me =kraestay-1SG.IND =MUT'he/she stay as we know'yo-gwabe-3SG.INDimedown.thereyo-gwa imebe-3SG.IND down.there'There it is down over there'There are no zero-place predicates in Dom.

Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);The only position which can be optionally filled is the sentence topic.

Noun classifiers can have the following functions: ˥˩nlwater˥nulriver˥˩nl ˥nulwater river'river'˥eretree˥˩amlpeanut/pandanus˥ere ˥˩amltree peanut/pandanus'pandanus which bears the nut-like fruit'˥kulgrass˥˩amlpeanut/pandanus˥kul ˥˩amlgrass peanut/pandanus'peanut'˥˩nlwater˥˩biaalcohol˥˩nl ˥˩biawater alcohol'Alkohol'˥˩bolapig˥˩sipsipsheep˥˩bola ˥˩sipsippig sheep'sheep'A noun can be repeated to express the following relations:[17] ˥˩biruaenemy˥˩biruaenemy˩˥me-ipkastay-2/3.SRD˥˩birua ˥˩birua ˩˥me-ipkaenemy enemy stay-2/3.SRD'The two are enemies for each other'˥˩kalthing˥˩kalthing˥˩kal ˥˩kalthing thing'several things'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.,[4] 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:[18] 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.