Dumi language

Dumi is a Kiranti language spoken in the area around the Tap and Rava rivers and their confluence in northern Khotang district, Nepal.¹ It is spoken in the villages such as Makpa, Kharbari, Baksila, Sapteshwor, and Kharmi.

Dialects are Kharbari, Lamdija, and Makpa, with Makpa being the most divergent dialect.¹

Dumi is an ergative-absolutive language. Embedded sentences may take on the ergative case. Subjects of intransitive verbs and patients of transitive verbs take the absolutive case. A transitive verb shows agreement with both agent and patient.

Nominal plurality is denoted by the suffix <-mɨl> and duality by the suffix <-nɨ>. The plural suffix precedes the ergative and most case endings.

Personal pronouns distinguish between three persons, three numbers, and between inclusive and exclusive. Third person -ɨm denotes only human referents. tom 'this' and mom 'that' can refer to non-human third person subjects. Additionally, aŋ, an, ɨm, and hammɨl have possessive prefixes o:-, a-, ɨ-, and ham-, respectively. The pronouns abo 'who', mwo: 'what', hempa 'where' and hempo 'which one' occupy the same position as their corresponding non-interrogative pronoun would occupy.

The default word order is Subject-Object-Verb.

Attributive forms of numerals 1-9 use the numeral classifier -bo, while the attributive forms of other numerals are unmarked. The interrogative pronoun hittakbo 'how many' also carries this classifier.