Golin (also Gollum, Gumine) is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea.
Phonology
Vowels Front Back High Mid Low Diphthongs that occur are . The consonants can also be syllabic.
Consonant Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar plain lab. plain Late. plain lab. Nasal Stop voiceless/voiced (bʷ) (gʷ) Fricative ~ ~ Approximant Trill are treated as single consonants by Bunn & Bunn (1970),* but as combinations of + , + by Evans et al. (2005).
Two consonants appear to allow free variation in their realisations: varies with , and with .
assimilates to before and .
Tone Golin is a tonal language, distinguishing high ([˧˥]), mid ([˨˧]), and low ([˨˩]) tone. The high tone is marked by an acute accent and the low tone by a grave accent, while the mid tone is left unmarked. Examples: High: mú [mu˧˥] 'type of snake'; wí [wi˧˥] 'scream (man)' Mid: mu [mu˨˧] 'type of bamboo'; wi [wi˨˧] 'coming from the same ethnic group' Low: mù [mu˨˩] 'sound of river'; wì [wi˨˩] 'cut (verb)'
Pronouns Golin is notable for having a small pronominal paradigm. There are two basic pronouns: ná first person í second person
There is no number distinction and no true third person pronoun. Third person pronouns in Golin are in fact compounds derived from 'man' plus inín 'self': yalíni 'he' < yál 'man' + inín 'self' abalíni 'she' < abál 'woman' + inín 'self'
References