Dusner language

Dusner is a language spoken in the village of Dusner in the province of Papua, Indonesia. Dusner is highly endangered, and has been reported to have just three remaining speakers.[3][1][4]

Dusner
Native toWest Papua, Indonesia
RegionCenderawasih Bay
Native speakers
3 (2011)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3dsn
Glottologdusn1237
ELPDusner[2]
Dusner
Dusner
Dusner
Coordinates: 2.74°S 134.39°E / -2.74; 134.39

Sociolinguistic situation

The language is highly endangered with only three speakers reported to be remaining.[3][1][4] In 2011, researchers from Oxford University's Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics began a project to document the vocabulary and grammar of the language, in collaboration with UNIPA (State University of Papua) and UNCEN (Cenderawasih University, Papua).[5][6] The project outputs were a vocabulary, a published grammar,[3] and a website documenting the language.

Phonology

The phoneme inventory of Dusner consists of five vowels and 19 consonants (five of which are only attested in loanwords from Indonesian/Papuan Malay).[3]

Vowels[3]
front back
high i u
mid e o
low a
Consonants[3]
labial alveolar postalveolar palatal velar pharyngeal
plosives p b t d k g
affricates ( t͡ʃ ) ( d͡ʒ )
fricatives β s ( h )
nasal stops m n ( ɲ ) ŋ
liquids r ( l )
glides w j

(Phonèmes in parenthèses in the table are only attested in loanwords from Papuan Malay)

There is no tone in the language. The phonology of the language has a high number of complex syllable onsets, some of them contravening the Sonority Sequencing Principle.

References
  1. Malvern, Jack (21 April 2011). "Last few speakers of Indonesian language Dusner nearly wiped out by flood, volcano". The Australian. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Dusner.
  3. Dalrymple, Mary; Mofu, Suriel (2012). Dusner. LINCOM Europa. ISBN 9783862882786.
  4. "April 21, 2011: articles on the Dusner language, spoken by 3 last speakers". SOROSORO: So the languages of the world may live on!. Retrieved 2013-02-08.
  5. Alleyne, Richard (2011-04-21). "Oxford University mission to save a language spoken by three people". Telegraph. Retrieved 2013-02-08.
  6. "Multimodal language documentation for Dusner, an endangered language of Papua". University of Oxford, Linguistics, Philology & Phonetics. Retrieved 2013-02-08.
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