Dumi language

Dumi is a Kiranti language spoken in the area around the Tap and Rava rivers and their confluence in northern Khotang district, Nepal. It is spoken in the villages such as Makpa, Kharbari, Baksila, Sapteshwor, and Kharmi.

Dialects are Kharbari, Lamdija, and Makpa, with Makpa being the most divergent dialect.

Phonology

Grammar

Dumi is an ergative-absolutive language. Embedded sentences may take on the ergative case. Subjects of intransitive verbs and patients of transitive verbs take the absolutive case. A transitive verb shows agreement with both agent and pacient.

Nominal plurality is denoted by the suffix <-mɨl> and duality by the suffix <-nɨ>. The plural suffix precedes the ergative and most case endings.

Personal pronouns distinguish between three persons, three numbers, and between inclusive and exclusive. Third person -ɨm denotes only human referents. tom 'this' and mom 'that' can refer to non-human third person subjects. Additionally, aŋ, an, ɨm, and hammɨl have possessive prefixes o:-, a-, ɨ-, and ham-, respectively. The pronouns abo 'who', mwo: 'what', hempa 'where' and hempo 'which one' occupy the same position as their corresponding non-interrogative pronoun would occupy.

The default word order is Subject-Object-Verb.

Attributive forms of numerals 1-9 use the numeral classifier -bo, while the attributive forms of other numerals are unmarked. The interrogative pronoun hittakbo 'how many' also carries this classifier.