Dorig language explained

Dorig (formerly called Wetamut) is a threatened Oceanic language spoken on Gaua island in Vanuatu.

The language's 300 speakers live mostly in the village of Dorig pronounced as /wwo/, 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.^[2]

Name

The name Dorig is derived from the name of the village where it is spoken.

Phonology

Dorig has eight phonemic vowels. These include seven short monophthongs pronounced as //i ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ u// and one long vowel pronounced as //aː//.

Dorig vowels

		Back
Close	pronounced as /link/ (i)	pronounced as /link/ (u)
Near-close	pronounced as /link/ (ē)	pronounced as /link/ (ō)
Open-mid	pronounced as /link/ (e)	pronounced as /link/ (o)
Open	pronounced as /link/ (a), pronounced as /link/ (ā)

Dorig has 15 consonant phonemes.^[3]

Dorig consonants!!Labiovelar!Bilabial!Alveolar!Dorsal

Voiceless stop	pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/ (q)		pronounced as /link/ (t)	pronounced as /link/ (k)
Prenasalized stop		pronounced as /link/ (b)	pronounced as /link/ (d)
Nasal	pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/ (m̄)	pronounced as /link/ (m)	pronounced as /link/ (n)	pronounced as /link/ (n̄)
Fricative		pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ (v)	pronounced as /link/ (s)	pronounced as /link/ (g)
Rhotic			pronounced as /link/ (r)
Lateral			pronounced as /link/ (l)
Approximant	pronounced as /link/ (w)

The phonotactic template for a syllable in Dorig is: pronounced as //CCVC// — e.g. pronounced as //rk͡pʷa// ‘woman’ (< *rVᵐbʷai); pronounced as //ŋ͡mʷsar// ‘poor’ (< *mʷasara); pronounced as //wrɪt// ‘octopus’ (< *ɣurita). Remarkably, the consonant clusters of these /CCVC/ syllables are not constrained by the Sonority Sequencing Principle. Historically, these /CCVC/ syllables reflect former trisyllabic, paroxytone words */CVˈCVCV/, after deletion of the two unstressed vowels: e.g. POc. *kuRíta ‘octopus’ > *wərítə > pronounced as //wrɪt//.

Grammar

The system of personal pronouns in Dorig contrasts clusivity, and distinguishes four numbers (singular, dual, trial, plural).^[4]

Spatial reference is based on a system of geocentric (absolute) directionals, which is typical of Oceanic languages.^[5]

Bibliography

• • • .
  • Book: François , Alexandre . Asia-Pacific Linguistics . 978-1-922185-23-5 . 137–195 . Alexandre François . Sébastien Lacrampe . Michael Franjieh . Stefan Schnell . 2 . The languages of Vanuatu: Unity and diversity . The ins and outs of up and down: Disentangling the nine geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages . Canberra . Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia . https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2015_North-Vanuatu-space-directionals.pdf . 2015 . 1885/14819 . updown .
  • Web site: Presentation of the Dorig language, and audio archive . François . Alexandre . 2 . 2022 . . Paris . CNRS . 28 Sep 2022 . pangloss.

External links

• Linguistic map of north Vanuatu, showing range of Dorig on Gaua.
• Audio recordings in Dorig language, in open access, by A. François (source: Pangloss Collection).
• Stories in Dorig, with audio recording and translation:
  • "The mysterious Pixies", by John Star.
  • "The woman who became volcano", by John Collection Wemaras.
  • "The barracuda boy", by Selwyn Wesur.
  • "Wrisris, the Guardian of the Underworld" by Charles Maklen.

Notes and References

1. .
2. https://marama.huma-num.fr/AF-field.htm#Vanuatu List of Banks islands languages
3. [#pangloss|François (2022)]
4. [#pronouns|François (2016)]
5. [#updown|François (2015)]