Doromu, or Doromu-Koki, is a Manubaran language spoken in the " Bird's Tail" of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. Doromu has about 1,500 native speakers with half of them living in the capital,

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

. It has three

varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

: Koki, Kokila and Koriko.

Phonology

Doromu has 17

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

s: 12 are

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...

s and 5 are

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...

Consonants

Below is a chart of Doromu consonants.

Vowels

Below is a chart of Doromu vowels.

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.

Verbs

In Doromu verbs may have suffixes, which affect tense,

aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...

, mood, or

switch reference In linguistics, switch-reference (SR) describes any clause-level morpheme that signals whether certain prominent arguments in 'adjacent' clauses are coreferential. In most cases, it marks whether the subject of the verb in one clause is corefe ...

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. 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'.