Urim language


Urim is a Torricelli language of Papua New Guinea. It is also known as Kalp; dialects are Kukwo, Yangkolen. There is a grammatical description by Hemmilä and Luoma.

Phonology

Urim has vowel length contrast, but only for monosyllabic words. Urim also has the prestopped nasals /pm/, /tn/, and /kŋ/.
Urim minimal pairs with short and long vowels:
  • ‘time’, ‘tree trunk’
  • ‘wild sago’, ‘outside’
Pre-stopped nasals contrast with non-pre-stopped nasals:
  • ‘species of plant’, waŋ ‘time’, ‘fire’
  • ‘enough’, yan ‘father’, ‘walk’
  • ‘nose’, ‘you ’
  • ‘wasp’, ‘earthquake’, ‘liver’

Pronouns

Pronouns are:
Like the Lower Sepik-Ramu languages, Urim distinguishes dual and paucal pronouns.