Purari language
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Purari is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. It is also known as Koriki, Evorra, I'ai,Maipua and Namau. Namau is a colonial term which means "deaf (lit.), inattentive, or stupid (Williams 1924: 4)." Today people of the Purari Delta find this term offensive. F.E. Williams reports that the "[a]n interpreter suggests that by some misunderstanding the name had its origin in the despair of an early missionary, who, finding the natives turned a deaf ear to his teaching, dubbed them all 'Namau'." (Williams 1924: 4). Koriki, I'ai, and Maipua refer to self-defining groups that make up the six groups that today compose the people who speak Purari. Along with the Baroi (formerly known as the Evorra, which was the name of a village site), Kaimari and the Vaimuru, these groups speak mutually intelligible dialects of Purari.
Purari has been tentatively linked to the Eleman languages.
[edit] References
- Holmes, J. H. (Jan.–June 1913). "A Preliminary Study of the Namau Language, Purari Delta, Papua". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland) 43: 124–142. doi:10.2307/2843165. JSTOR 2843165.
- Williams, F.E. (1924). The natives of the Purari Delta.. Port Moresby: Government Printer..
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