Omurano is an unclassified language from Peru. It is also known as Humurana, Roamaina, Numurana, Umurano, and Mayna. The language was presumed to have become extinct by 1958,[2] 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.

Omurano
Mayna
Native toPeru
EthnicityMaina
Native speakers
a few speakers or rememberers (2011)[1]
unclassified
(Saparo–Yawan?)
Language codes
ISO 639-3omu
Glottologomur1241

It was spoken near the Urituyacu River (a tributary of the Marañón River),[3] or on the Nucuray River according to Loukotka (1968).[4]

Classification

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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 that Omurano is related to Zaparoan.[3]

Language contact

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Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Urarina, Arawak, Zaparo, and Leko language families due to contact.[5]

Vocabulary

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A word list by Tessmann (1930) is the primary source for Omurano lexical data.[6]

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.[4]

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

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Further reading

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

References

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  1. ^ O'Hagan, Zachary J. (22 September 2011). "Informe de campo del idioma omurano" (PDF). Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  2. ^ Omurano language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  3. ^ a b de Carvalho. 2013. On Záparoan as a valid genetic unity: Preliminary correspondences and the status of Omurano. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Antropológica 5: 91-116.
  4. ^ a b Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
  5. ^ Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.
  6. ^ Tessmann, Günter. 1930. Die Indianer Nordost-Perus: grundlegende Forschungen für eine systematische Kulturkunde. Hamburg: Friederichsen, de Gruyter.