{{short description|Skou language of Papua New Guinea}} {{Infobox language |name=Vanimo |nativename= |states=[[Papua New Guinea]] |region=[[Sandaun Province]] |ethnicity=[[Dumo people]], Dusur |speakers={{sigfig|2670|2}} |date=2000 census |ref=e18 |familycolor=Papuan |fam1=[[Skou languages|Skou]] |fam2=[[Western Skou languages|Western]] |iso3=vam |glotto=vani1248 |glottorefname=Vanimo |dia1=Dusur (Duso) |dia2=Dumo (Vanimo) }}

'''Vanimo''' (Wanimo, Manimo) is a [[Skou languages|Skou language]] of [[Papua New Guinea]] which extends from Leitre to Wutung on the Papua New Guinea - Indonesian border.

==Phonology== The Duso dialect of Vanimo is unusual in not having any phonemic [[velar consonant]]s, though it does have phonetic {{IPA|[ŋ]}}.<ref>Malcolm Ross, 1980, "Some elements of Vanimo, a New Guinea tone language"</ref>

The vowels (Dumo dialect) are,

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |+class="nowrap" | ! ! [[Front vowel|Front]] ! [[Central vowel|Central]] ! [[Back vowel|Back]] |- ! [[Close vowel|Close]] | {{IPA link|i|i}} || || {{IPA link|u|u}} |- ! [[Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]] | {{IPA link|e̞|e~eɪ}}||{{IPA link|ø|ø}} || {{IPA link|o̞|o}} |- ! [[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]] | {{IPA link|æ|ɛ~æ}} || || {{IPA link|ɔ|ɔ}} |- ! [[Open vowel|Open]] | {{IPA link|a|a}} || || |- |}

All occur nasalized, varying phonetically between a nasal vowel and a vowel followed by consonantal {{IPA|[ŋ]}}. Nasal /u/ may be realized as a syllabic {{IPA|[ŋ̍]}}.

In Dumo, there are no velar consonants apart from this {{IPA|[ŋ]}} (and also as noted below). The other consonants are,

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" ! ! [[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]] ! [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]] ! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]] ! [[Velar consonant|Velar]] ! [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]] |- ! [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]] | {{IPA link|m}} | {{IPA link|n}} | {{IPA link|ɲ}} | {{IPA link|ŋ}} | |- ! [[Stop consonant|Stop]] | {{IPA link|p}}&nbsp;&nbsp;{{IPA link|b}} | {{IPA link|t}}&nbsp;&nbsp;{{IPA link|d}} | | | |- ! [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]] | {{IPA link|ɸ}}&nbsp;&nbsp;{{IPA link|β}} | {{IPA link|s}} | | | {{IPA link|ɦ}} |- ! [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]] | | |{{IPA link|j~dʲ~dʒ}} |{{IPA link|w}} | |- ! [[Lateral consonant|Lateral Approximant]] | | {{IPA link|l}} | | | |}

Consonant clusters are /pl, bl, ml, ɲv, hv, hm, hn, hɲ, hj/ (hv and hm may be allophones). /ɲv/ is pronounced {{IPA|[ŋβ]}}. There are no coda consonants apart from {{IPA|[ŋ]}}.

{{IPA|/k, ɡ, ŋ/}} do occur in Dusö dialect. They correspond to {{IPA|/ɦ/}} or zero in Dumo.

Dumo syllables may have either a 'high' or a 'long' tone. There is strict syllable timing, a 'long'-toned syllable takes the entire time allotted for a syllable, whereas with a high-tone or atonic syllable, there is a slight gap between it and the following syllable. Ross writes high tone with a ''grave'' accent, and long tone with an acute accent. A syllable with a nasal vowel / coda {{IPA|[ŋ]}} is not necessarily long, it may have any of the three tones.

== Vocabulary == The majority of Vanimo words contain either one, two, three, or four syllables.

=== Personal pronouns === The pronoun system in Vanimo accommodates its grammatical gender system. The "masculine" and "feminine" 2nd and 3rd person pronouns, along with their primary uses for referring to people, can also be used for non-animate nouns or common nouns in correspondance with their grammatical gender. An example of this would be the pronoun ''ébu'', which can be used both to mean ''you'' (in which all three members of the group being referred to as ''you'' are female), or to mean ''you'' ( in which the group being referred to as ''you'', is made up of three common nouns that are all grammatically female). In the table below ''?'' is used to represent unknown or undocumented words.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |+class="nowrap" | ! ! Singular ! Dual ! Trial ! Plural |- ! 1st exc. | né||nimi||nihò||ni |- ! 1st inc. | ?||nimivo||nihò||nivo |- ! 2nd (masc.) | mi||?||éhò||é/évo |- ! 2nd (fem.) | mi||?||ébu||é/évo |- ! 3rd (masc.) | hé||déhé||déhò||dé |- ! 3rd (fem.) | bé||débé||débu||dé |- |}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite journal|url=http://www-01.sil.org/pacific/png/pubs/928474542501/Vanimo_OPD.pdf|title=Organised Phonology Data|last=Clifton|first=John M.|year=1995}}

{{Skou languages}} {{Languages of Papua New Guinea}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Languages of Sandaun Province]] [[Category:Western Skou languages]]