Purari language
| Purari | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | near the mouth of the Purari River in Gulf Province[1] |
Native speakers | 7,000 (2011)[2] |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | iar |
| Glottolog | pura1257 |
| ELP | Purari |
Purari (Namau) is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea.
Names
Purari 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.
The name Baimuru (after Baimuru Rural LLG) is given in Petterson (2019).[4]
Classification
Noting that the few similarities with the Eleman languages may be because of loanwords, Pawley and Hammarström (2018) leave it as unclassified rather than as part of Trans-New Guinea.[1]
Pronouns
Pronouns are 1sg nai, 2sg ni, 1pl enei. The first may resemble Trans–New Guinea *na, but Purari appears to be related to the Binanderean–Goilalan languages.[3]
Phonology
Unlike most other neighboring Papuan languages, Purari (Baimuru) is non-tonal.[4]
References
- ^ a b Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- ^ Purari at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ a b New Guinea World, Oro – Wharton Range
- ^ a b Petterson, Robert. 2019. Interesting Features of Porome: An Isolate Language of PNG. Paper presented at the LSPNG 2019 Conference. 30pp.
Further reading
- Holmes, J. H. (January–June 1913). "A Preliminary Study of the Namau Language, Purari Delta, Papua". Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 43. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland: 124–142. doi:10.2307/2843165. JSTOR 2843165.
- Williams, F.E. (1924). The natives of the Purari Delta. Port Moresby: Government Printer.
External links
- TransNewGuinea.org database
- Materials on Karnai are included in the open access Arthur Capell collections (AC1 and AC2) held by Paradisec
- Paradisec has an open access collection from Tom Dutton (TD1) that includes Purari language materials