- Source: Golin language
Golin (also Gollum, Gumine) is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea.
Phonology
= Vowels
=Diphthongs that occur are /ɑi ɑu ɔi ui/. The consonants /l n/ can also be syllabic.
= Consonant
=/bʷ ɡʷ/ are treated as single consonants by Bunn & Bunn (1970), but as combinations of /b/ + /w/, /ɡ/ + /w/ by Evans et al. (2005).
Two consonants appear to allow free variation in their realisations: [s] varies with [ʃ], and [l] with [ɬ].
/n/ assimilates to [ŋ] before /k/ and /ɡ/.
= Tone
=Golin is a tonal language, distinguishing high ([˧˥]), mid ([˨˧]), and low ([˨˩]) tone. The high tone is marked by an acute accent and the low tone by a grave accent, while the mid tone is left unmarked. Examples:
High: mú [mu˧˥] 'type of snake'; wí [wi˧˥] 'scream (man)'
Mid: mu [mu˨˧] 'type of bamboo'; wi [wi˨˧] 'coming from the same ethnic group'
Low: mù [mu˨˩] 'sound of river'; wì [wi˨˩] 'cut (verb)'
Pronouns
Golin is notable for having a small pronominal paradigm. There are two basic pronouns:
ná first person
í second person
There is no number distinction and no true third person pronoun. Third person pronouns in Golin are in fact compounds derived from 'man' plus inín 'self':
yalíni 'he' < yál 'man' + inín 'self'
abalíni 'she' < abál 'woman' + inín 'self'
References
Bunn, Gordon (1974). "Golin grammar". Working Papers in New Guinea Linguistics. 5.