Burum language

Burum
Burum
Mindik
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Huon Peninsula, Morobe Province
Native speakers	(9,000 cited 2000 census)
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Finisterre–Huon Huon Western Huon Burum; ; ; ;
Dialects	Somba; Siawari;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bmu
Glottolog	buru1306

Last updated January 02, 2026

Burum (also known as Yaknge or Somba-Siawari after its two dialects and Mindik in the language itself) is a Papuan language spoken in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. Its closest related language is Borong (also known as Kosorong).^[2]

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants^[3]
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	plain	lab.
Plosive	unvoiced	p	t		k	kʷ
Plosive	voiced	b	d		g	gʷ
Affricate	unvoiced		ts
Affricate	voiced		dz
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Trill			r
Fricative		f	s		ɣ
Approximant			l	j		w

/p,t,k/ are aspirated word initially and unreleased word finally. Between vowels, they are /w,r,h/.^[4]
/kʷ/ and /gʷ/ are rarely [ kp ], [ gb ] in some dialects.^[4]
/ɣ/ is [ h ] word initially.^[4]

Vowels

Monophthongs^[5]
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open			ɑ

Burum also has 14 diphthongs: /iɑ/, /iu/, /ei/, /eu/, /əi/, /əu/, /oi/, /oe/, /ou/, /ɑi/, /ɑu/, /ui/, /ue/, and /uɑ/.^[6]

Orthography

Orthography^[3]
Uppercase letters	A	B	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	Ŋ	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	W	Gw	Y	Z	Ö
Lowercase letters	a	b	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	ŋ	o	p	q	r	s	t	u	w	gw	y	z	ö
IPA	/ɑ/	/b/	/d/	/e/	/f/	/ɡ/	/ɣ/	/i/	/dz/	/k/	/l/	/m/	/n/	/ŋ/	/o/	/p/	/kʷ/	/r/	/s/	/t/	/u/	/w/	/gʷ/	/j/	/t͡s/	/ə/

⟨f⟩ occurs in loanwords.^[4]
Weakened /p,t,k/ are written ⟨w, r, h⟩, as pronounced.^[4]

Notes

↑ Burum at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
↑ Usher.
1 2 Olkkonen 1994, p. 1.
1 2 3 4 5 Olkkonen 1994, p. 4.
↑ Olkkonen 1994, p. 2.
↑ Olkkonen 1994, p. 3.

References

Usher, Timothy. "Bulum River". newguineaworld. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
Olkkonen, Soini (1994). "Organised Phonology Data" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.

Olkkonen, Kaija; Olkkonen, Soini (2007). Somba-Siawari (Burum Mindik)—English dictionary (in Burum, Kâte, and English).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
Olkkonen, Soini (1990) [1986]. The Clitics of the Somba-Siawari Language (PDF). 2nd International Conference on Papuan Linguistics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
"Burum-Mindik Swadesh List".

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[e18-1] Burum at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[FOOTNOTEUsher-2] Usher.

[FOOTNOTEOlkkonen19941-3] 1 2 Olkkonen 1994, p. 1.

[FOOTNOTEOlkkonen19944-4] 1 2 3 4 5 Olkkonen 1994, p. 4.

[FOOTNOTEOlkkonen19942-5] Olkkonen 1994, p. 2.

[FOOTNOTEOlkkonen19943-6] Olkkonen 1994, p. 3.

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