Purari language

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 very 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).Petterson, Robert. 2019. Interesting Features of Porome: An Isolate Language of PNG. Paper presented at the LSPNG 2019 Conference. 30pp.

Literature Some literature exists in Purari, mainly Scripture portions produced by missionaries and Bible agencies. The first items in the language were a primer and hymnal published for the London Missionary Society in 1902. Later a New Testament, called 'Ene amua Iesu Keriso onu kuruei voa Nawawrea Eire', was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1920, which was republished in 1947.

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.

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.

Phonology +ConsonantsLabialAlveolarVelarGlottalPlosive () Nasal Fricative Approximant , The phoneme /t/ is said to appear in a few rare words, but never in casual speech. +Vowels Front Central Back High Mid Low Unlike most other neighboring Papuan languages, Purari (Baimuru) is non-tonal.

Vocabulary The following basic vocabulary words are from Franklin (1973),Franklin, K. J. "Other Language Groups in the Gulf District and Adjacent Areas". In Franklin, K. editor, The linguistic situation in the Gulf District and adjacent areas, Papua New Guinea. C-26:261-278. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1973. as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:

{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Purari |- | head || uku |- | hair || kimari |- | ear || keporo |- | eye || inamu |- | nose || pina |- | tooth || niʔiri |- | tongue || anae |- | leg || ari |- | louse || kaeriʔi |- | dog || oroko |- | bird || nako |- | egg || munu |- | blood || aro |- | bone || laʔaro |- | skin || kape |- | breast || ame |- | tree || iri |- | man || vake |- | woman || aʔe |- | sun || lare |- | moon || ia |- | water || ere |- | fire || iau |- | stone || rore |- | name || noe |- | eat || navai |- | one || monou |- | two || leʔeo

References

Purari language

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