Burmeso_language

Burmeso language

Burmeso language

Papuan language


The Burmeso language – also known as Taurap – is spoken by some 300 people in Burmeso village along the mid Mamberamo River in Mamberamo Tengah subdistrict, Mamberamo Raya Regency, Papua province, Indonesia. It is surrounded by the Kwerba languages to the north, the Lakes Plain languages to the south, and the East Cenderawasih Bay languages to the west.

Quick Facts Region, Native speakers ...

Burmeso forms a branch of Malcolm Ross's family of East Bird's Head – Sentani languages, but had been considered a language isolate by Stephen Wurm and William A. Foley.[2] The language has very distinct grammatical structure.[3] It has SOV word order.[2]

Phonology

More information Labial, Alveolar ...

Probable sound changes proposed by Foley (2018):

  • *p > /ɸ/
  • *tʃ > /s/
More information Front, Back ...

Pronouns

Burmeso independent pronouns are:[2]

More information sg, du ...

Nouns

Burmeso has six noun classes, which are:[2]

More information class, semantic category ...

Burmeso nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.[4] Singular concordial suffixes are:

  • -ab ‘masculine’
  • -an ‘feminine’
  • -ora ‘neuter’

Examples of nominal concordial suffixes in usage:

(1)

koya

grandfather

bek-ab

good-M.SG

koya bek-ab

grandfather good-M.SG

‘Grandfather is good.’

(2)

asia

grandmother

ek-an

good-F.SG

asia ek-an

grandmother good-F.SG

‘Grandmother is good.’

Basic vocabulary

Basic vocabulary of Burmeso (singular and plural nominal forms) listed in Foley (2018):[2]

More information gloss, singular ...

Many Burmeso nouns display irregular and suppletive plural forms.[2]

More information gloss, singular ...

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),[5] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[6]

More information gloss ...

References

  1. Burmeso at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". 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. 433–568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  3. Foley, William A. (2018). "The morphosyntactic typology of Papuan languages". 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. 895–938. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  4. Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. doi:10.15144/PL-B31
  5. Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.

Further reading

  • Donohue, Mark. 2001. Animacy, class and gender in Burmeso. In: Pawley et al. (eds.), The Boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian Linguistics in Honour of Tom Dutton. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.97–117.
  • Tasti, Markus and Mark Donohue. 1998. A Small Dictionary of Burmeso. Unpublished ms, University of Sydney.

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