About The Pom Language

Pom is an Austronesian language spoken on Yapen Island in Cenderawasih Bay in Papua Province, Indonesia. It has around 2000 speakers (Simons & Fennig 2017). This wordlist was recorded by Emily Gasser with Pom speakers Yanselt Borotabui, Spenyei Awendu, Frengky Mantundoi, Frence Kapitaray, and Memase Kadwaru on the Unipa campus in Manokwari in June/July 2016.

Using this dictionary: The forms given as headwords are roots. Because verbs in Pom must always be conjugated to agree with their subject, these forms will never appear in isolation. Therefore the recordings of verbs will always be of conjugated forms, usually in the first person singular. For example, ra ‘go’ is pronounced in the recording as ira ‘I go’. Some adjectives are also recorded with subject agreement, usually the 3rd person singular, which in some cases is an infix, for example with hanai ‘good’, spoken as hinai ‘it is good’. Other morphology also occasionally appears in the recordings of various forms.

Phoneme Inventory

Consonants

		bilabial	alveolar	palatal	velar	glottal
nasals		m m	n n		ŋ ng
plosives	voiceless	p p	t t		k k
	voiced	b b	d d
fricatives		β v	s s			h h
affricates			d͡ʒ j
trills			r r
glides				j y	w w

Vowels

	front	central	back
high	i i		u u
high-mid	e e		o o
low		a a

Example words for each phoneme are given in the following table.

Pom orthography	Sound	English and Indonesian examples	Pom examples
P p	p	spotpukul	listenloadingplaying pandu village
T t	t	steamtulis	listenloadingplaying tawai snake
K k	k	skipkota	listenloadingplaying kami stone
B b	b	buybawa	listenloadingplaying buong fruit
D d	d	dancedatang	listenloadingplaying dian fish
M m	m	mothermama	listenloadingplaying mo seed
N n	n	nonenoken	listenloadingplaying nu place
Ng ng	ŋ	singbingung	listenloadingplaying wongkori crocodile
V v	β	––	listenloadingplaying vekakeha green, blue
S s	s	sevensini	listenloadingplaying siu nine
H h	h	hellohabis	listenloadingplaying hahi salt
J j	d͡ʒ	jealousjeruk	listenloadingplaying wawonjei above
R r	r	–rumah	listenloadingplaying remo eye
Y y	j	yellowyakin	listenloadingplaying yawa house
W w	w	windwarna	listenloadingplaying wanan wind
A a	a	fatherbapak	listenloadingplaying wa canoe
E e	e	rainlembek	listenloadingplaying nemor heart
I i	i	deeppilih	listenloadingplaying i he, she, it
O o	o	bonekotor	listenloadingplaying ko take
U u	u	rootmulut	listenloadingplaying amuma fly

Phonotactics

Pom syllables are mostly CV(C). Codas, though allowed, are rarer than CV syllables. The sounds /b/, /d/, /h/, /j/, and /w/ have not been observed to appear as codas, although [j] and [w] can appear at the end of word-final diphthongs as allophones of /i/ and /u/ (see Phonology). Consonant clusters only appear word-internally and then are limited to homorganic nasal plus stop/affricate (/mb/, /mp/, /nd/, /nt/, /ŋk/, and one example of /ndʒ/). Examples can be heard in tamambuai ‘uncle’, runandaun ‘hair’, and ingkira ‘spider’.

Single vowel syllables V are observed at the beginning of words and as monosyllables. Vowels can occur in sequence, apparently quite freely ordered, and are generally pronounced as diphthongs or triphthongs.

Phonology

The vowels /i/ and /u/ may alternate with the glides [j] and [w] respectively when preceded by a consonant and followed by another vowel. This change always occurs with /u/ → [w], but is not universal with /i/ → [j]. Examples of this change can be heard in andiaun ‘leaf’ and buong ‘fruit’.

Pom undergoes a phonological ‘crazy rule’ of VRK mutation, as described by Gasser (in prep.), in which root-initial /β/, /r/, and /k/ become [mb], [nd], and [ŋg] when preceded by a consonant. This can be seen in the verbal agreement system for non-singular forms.

		‘to eat (intr.)’	‘to dig’	‘to go’	‘to tie’
	prefix	-ampi	-vai	-ra	-karei
1sg	/i-/	jampi	iβai	ira	ikarei
1du.incl	/tur-/	turampi	tumbai	tunda	tuŋgarei
1pl.incl	/tat-/	tatampi	tambai	tanda	taŋgarei

Verbal Morphology

Verbs in Pom are conjugated to agree with their subject in person and number. The following verb paradigm is likely incomplete in that it doesn’t reflect the inclusive (me & you) vs. exclusive (me & someone else) distinction in the first person non-singular forms. The 1pl and 1dual forms given are inclusive.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
	am(pi) ‘eat (intr.)’
1	yau yampi	turu turampi	tatoru tarampi
	‘I eat’	‘we two eat’	‘we eat’
2	au wampi	muru murampi	mintoru miarampi
	‘you eat’	‘you two eat’	‘y’all eat’
3	i diampi	huru hurampi	tioru tirampi
	‘he/she/it eats’	‘they two eat’	‘they eat’
	karei(pa) ‘tie (intr.)’
1	yau ikarei	turu tunggareipa	tatoru tanggareipa
	‘I tie’	‘we two tie’	‘we tie’
2	au kurei	muru munggareipa	mintoru mianggareipa
	‘you tie’	‘you two tie’	‘y’all tie’
3	i kirepa	huru hunggareipa	tioru tinggareipa
	‘he/she/it ties’	‘they two tie’	‘they tie’

Further Research

Some further questions remain to be answered. Do the vowels /i/ and /u/ alternate to glides when they are the final vowel of a diphthong or triphthong? Is this process at all blocked or affected by the presence of a syllable coda? What, if anything, is the relationship between /s/ and /h/, both of which appear to be reflexes of historical *s? The morphology and syntax of Pom remain almost entirely undescribed.

References

Gasser, Emily. In prep. VRK Mutation in SHWNG: Historical Development of a Phonological Crazy Rule.

Simons, Gary F. and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2017. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Twentieth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: www.ethnologue.com.