Omurano is an
unclassified
Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...
language from
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
. It is also known as Humurana, Roamaina, Numurana, Umurano, and Mayna. The language was presumed to have become
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
by 1958, but in 2011 a
rememberer
Within the linguistic study of endangered language, endangered languages, sociolinguists distinguish between different speaker types based on the type of Linguistic competence, competence they have acquired of the endangered language. Often when a ...
was found who knew some 20 words in Omurano; he claimed that there were still people who could speak it.
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
Kaufman or Kauffman may refer to:
People
*Kaufmann (surname) ''Includes Kaufman, Kauffman, Kauffmann''
Places
* Kaufman, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Madison Count
* Kaufman, Texas, a city in Kaufman County
* Kaufman County, Texas, ...
(1994) finds the links reasonable, and in 2007 he classified Omurano and Taushiro (but not Kandoshi) as
Saparo–Yawan languages
Saparo–Yawan (Zaparo–Yaguan, Zaparo–Peba) is a language family proposal uniting two small language families of the western Amazon. It was first proposed by Swadesh (1954), and continues through Payne (1984) and Kaufman (1994).Kaufman, Terre ...
.
Maynas, once mistaken for a synonym, is a separate language.
Despite there being previous proposals linking Omurano with
Zaparoan
Zaparoan (also Sáparoan, Záparo, Zaparoano, Zaparoana) is an endangered language family of Peru and Ecuador with fewer than 100 speakers. Zaparoan speakers seem to have been very numerous before the arrival of the Europeans. However, their grou ...
, de Carvalho (2013) finds no evidence that Omurano is related to
Zaparoan
Zaparoan (also Sáparoan, Záparo, Zaparoano, Zaparoana) is an endangered language family of Peru and Ecuador with fewer than 100 speakers. Zaparoan speakers seem to have been very numerous before the arrival of the Europeans. However, their grou ...
.
[de Carvalho. 2013. On Záparoan as a valid genetic unity: Preliminary correspondences and the status of Omurano. ''Revista Brasileira de LinguÃstica Antropológica'' 5: 91-116.]
Language contact
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the
Urarina
The Urarina are an indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon Basin ( Loreto) who inhabit the valleys of the Chambira, Urituyacu, and Corrientes Rivers. According to both archaeological and historical sources, they have resided in the Chambira Basi ...
,
Arawak
The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the TaÃno, who historically lived in the Greater ...
,
Zaparo, and
Leko Leko may refer to:
* Leko (surname)
* Leko languages, a small group of African Savanna languages
* Leco language, a moribund isolate language of Bolivia
* Lekolite or Leko, a type of stage spotlight
* Alexandro da Silva Santos or Leko, Brazilian fo ...
language families due to contact.
Vocabulary
A word list by Tessmann (1930) is the primary source for Omurano lexical data.
[Tessmann, Günter. 1930. ''Die Indianer Nordost-Perus: grundlegende Forschungen für eine systematische Kulturkunde''. Hamburg: Friederichsen, de Gruyter.]
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.
:
See also
*
Maina Indians The Maina or Meena are a group of indigenous peoples living along the north bank of the Marañón River in South America. They spoke varieties of the Omurano language.
The Maina were among the first tribes of the upper Amazon region to have been ev ...
*
Extinct languages of the Marañón River basin
The Marañón River basin, at a low point in the Andes which made it an attractive location for trade between the Inca Empire and the Amazon basin, once harbored numerous languages which have been poorly attested or not attested at all. Those ...
*
Classification of indigenous languages of the Americas
This is a list of different language classification proposals developed for the indigenous languages of the Americas. The article is divided into North, Central, and South America sections; however, the classifications do not correspond to these di ...
Further reading
*O'Hagan, Zachary J. (2011). ''Omurano field notes''. (Manuscript).
References
{{South American languages
Indigenous languages of the Andes
Languages of Peru
Extinct languages of South America
Language isolates of South America