Omurano language

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Omurano is a language isolate from Peru.[2] It is also known as Humurana, Roamaina, Numurana, Umurano, and Mayna. The language was presumed to have become extinct by 1958,[3] but in 2011 a rememberer was found who knew some 20 words in Omurano; he claimed that there were still people who could speak it.[1] The community has otherwise switched to Urarina, another language isolate.

It was spoken near the Urituyacu River (a tributary of the Marañón River),[4] or on the Nucuray River according to Loukotka (1968).[5]

Classification

Tovar (1961) linked Omurano to Taushiro (and later Taushiro with Kandoshi); Kaufman (1994) finds the links reasonable, and in 2007 he classified Omurano and Taushiro (but not Kandoshi) as Saparo–Yawan languages.

Maynas, once mistaken for a synonym, is a separate language.

Despite there being previous proposals linking Omurano with Zaparoan, de Carvalho (2013) finds no evidence for this.[4]

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Urarina, Arawak, Zaparo, and Leko language families due to contact.[6]

Phonology

Consonants

Omurano has 10 consonants. No fricative or velar consonants have been attested.[2]

Omurano consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Template:Not a typo Palatal
voiceless voiced voiceless voiced
Stop p b t
Nasal m n ɲ
Affricate ʧ
Flap ɾ
Lateral l
Glide j

Template:IPAslink becomes Template:IPAblink before Template:IPAslink.

Vowels

Omurano has 5 vowel qualities. Nasal vowel counterparts are only present for Template:IPAblink. Length is not phonemic.[2]

Front Central Back
plain nasal
High i ĩ u
Mid e o
Low a

Tone

Omurano has two surface-level tones, high and low.[2]

Vocabulary

A word list by Tessmann (1930) is the primary source for Omurano lexical data.[7]

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.[5]

gloss Omurana
one nadzóra
two dzoʔóra
head na-neyalok
eye an-atn
woman mparáwan
fire íno
sun héna
star dzuñ
maize aíchia
house ána
white chalama

See also

Further reading

  • O'Hagan, Zachary J. (2011). Omurano field notes. (Manuscript).

References

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  7. Tessmann, Günter. 1930. Die Indianer Nordost-Perus: grundlegende Forschungen für eine systematische Kulturkunde. Hamburg: Friederichsen, de Gruyter.

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Template:South American languagesTemplate:Languages of Peru