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 [ⁿdʊˈriɰ], 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.

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 /iɪɛaɔʊu/ and one long vowel /aː/.

Dorig vowels
FrontBack
Closei ⟨i⟩u ⟨u⟩
Near-closeɪ ⟨ē⟩ʊ ⟨ō⟩
Open-midɛ ⟨e⟩ɔ ⟨o⟩
Opena ⟨a⟩, aː ⟨ā⟩

Dorig has 15 consonant phonemes.

Dorig consonants
LabiovelarBilabialAlveolarDorsal
Voiceless stopk͡pʷ ⟨q⟩t ⟨t⟩k ⟨k⟩
Prenasalized stopᵐb ⟨b⟩ⁿd ⟨d⟩
Nasalŋ͡mʷ ⟨m̄⟩m ⟨m⟩n ⟨n⟩ŋ ⟨n̄⟩
Fricativeβ ~ ɸ ⟨v⟩s ⟨s⟩ɣ ⟨g⟩
Rhoticr ⟨r⟩
Laterall ⟨l⟩
Approximantw ⟨w⟩

The phonotactic template for a syllable in Dorig is: /CCVC/ — e.g. /rk͡pʷa/ ‘woman’ (< *rVᵐbʷai); /ŋ͡mʷsar/ ‘poor’ (< *mʷasara); /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 > /wrɪt/.

Grammar

Basic syntax

Basic constituent order in Dorig is SVO.

The language has no copula (or verb be): its non-verbal predicates involve a direct juxtaposition {Subject | Predicate}.

Referential expressions

Pronouns

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

Noun phrases

Dorig has four articles:

Tense–Aspect–Mood and negation

The Dorig system of Tense–Aspect–Mood also incorporates the dimension of polarity (affirmation vs. negation), yielding a single “TAMP paradigm” (for “Tense-Aspect-Mood-Polarity”). That paradigm consists of 21 TAMP categories, e.g. Negative Potential (v)te-… late, positive Potential s(o)-… lala, (positive) Perfect m(e)-… The 14 TAMP positive morphemes come along 7 negative ones, a phenomenon known as paradigmatic asymmetry.

The seven negative TAMP markers of Dorig form part of a total of 16 grammatical constructions encoding negation.

Spatial reference

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

Bibliography

  • François, Alexandre (2005), (PDF), Oceanic Linguistics, 44 (2): 443–504, doi:, S2CID
  • —— (2010), (PDF), Phonology, 27 (3): 393–434, doi:
  • —— (2011), (PDF), Journal of Historical Linguistics, 1 (2): 175–246, doi:, hdl:
  • —— (2012), (PDF), International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 214: 85–110, doi:, S2CID
  • —— (2015), (PDF), in Alexandre François; Sébastien Lacrampe; Michael Franjieh; Stefan Schnell (eds.), , Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia, Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics, pp.137–195, hdl:, ISBN978-1-922185-23-5
  • —— (2016), (PDF), in Pozdniakov, Konstantin (ed.), Comparatisme et reconstruction: tendances actuelles, Faits de Langues, vol.47, Bern: Peter Lang, pp.25–60
  • —— (2022), , Pangloss Collection, Paris: CNRS
  • —— (2026a), (PDF), in Matti Miestamo; Ljuba Veselinova (eds.), Negation in the World's Languages, Research on Comparative Grammar 9, vol.3, Berlin: Language Science Press, pp.73–128, doi:
  • —— (2026b), (PDF), in Pier Marco Bertinetto; Luca Ciucci; Denis Creissels (eds.), , vol.2, Berlin: De Gruyter, pp.1021–1066, doi:

External links

  • .
  • , in open access, by A. François (source: Pangloss Collection).
  • Stories in Dorig, with audio recording and translation: , by John Star. , by John Collection Wemaras. , by Selwyn Wesur. by Charles Maklen.