Dobu language

(Redirected from ISO 639:dob)

Dobu or Dobuan is an Austronesian language spoken in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. It is a lingua franca for 100,000 people in D'Entrecasteaux Islands.

Dobu
Dobuan
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionMilne Bay Province, tip of Cape Vogel
Native speakers
(10,000 cited 1998)[1]
60% monolingual[1]
L2 speakers: 51,000 (2021)[1]
Latin script (Dobuan alphabet)
Dobuan Braille
Language codes
ISO 639-3dob
Glottologdobu1241

Phonology

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Consonants

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Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain lab. plain lab. plain lab.
Plosive voiceless p t k ʔ ʔʷ
voiced b d ɡ ɡʷ
Fricative s
Nasal m n
Flap ɺ
Approximant j w
  • Sounds /p, t, k/ may also be aspirated in free variation as [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] in all environments.
  • The lateral flap /ɺ/ may fluctuate with an alveolar vibrant flap [ɾ] depending on the dialect of the speaker.
  • /j/ may also fluctuate with a fricative [ʝ] within vocabulary.

Vowels

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Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid ɛ ɔ
Open a
  • /a/ may be heard as [ʌ] in unstressed syllables.
  • /ɔ/ may be heard as slightly more centralized [ɔ̽] when following labialized consonants in unstressed positions.
  • /u/ may be heard as [ʊ] in unstressed syllables.[2]
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References

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  1. ^ a b c Dobu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)  
  2. ^ Lithgow, Daphne (1977). Dobu phonemics. Phonologies of Five P.N.G. languages: Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 73–96.