Omurano language

Omurano is a language isolate from Peru. It is also known as Humurana, Roamaina, Numurana, Umurano, and Mayna. The language was presumed to have become extinct by 1958 from a measles epidemic, 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. The community has otherwise switched to Urarina, another language isolate.

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

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.

Language contact

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

Phonology

Consonants

Omurano has 10 consonants, and unusually appears to lack velar consonants.

/b/ becomes [β] before /e/. Apart from that, no fricatives have been attested.

Vowels

Omurano has 5 vowel qualities. Nasal vowel counterparts are only present for [i]. Length is not phonemic.

Tone

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

Vocabulary

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

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.

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

Comparison

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).