Omurano language

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 to	Peru
Ethnicity	Maina
Native speakers	a few speakers or rememberers (2011)[1]
Language family	unclassified (Saparo–Yawan?)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	omu
Glottolog	omur1241

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

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

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

Vocabulary

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

• Maina Indians
• Extinct languages of the Marañón River basin
• Classification of indigenous languages of the Americas

Further reading

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

References

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)
3. 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. 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.