Burmeso 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.

Burmeso
Taurap
RegionPapua: Mamberamo Raya Regency, Mamberamo Tengah subdistrict, Burmeso village on the banks of the Middle Mamberamo River
Native speakers
(250 cited 1998)[1]
West Papuan or language isolate
  • (extended) East Bird's Head
    • Burmeso
Language codes
ISO 639-3bzu
Glottologburm1264
ELPBurmeso

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

Consonants:[2]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal mn
Plosive voiceless tk
voiced bdʤɡ
Fricative plain ɸsh
labial
Liquid r
Semivowel wj

Probable sound changes proposed by Foley (2018):

  • *p > /ɸ/
  • *tʃ > /s/
Vowels:[2]
FrontBack
Close iu
Mid eo
Open a

Pronouns

Burmeso independent pronouns are:[2]

sgdupl
1 dadayboro
2 babito

Nouns

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

classsemantic category
class 1male humans and associated things (contains half of all nouns)
class 2female humans and associated things
class 3body parts, insects, and lizards; material culture like axes and canoes, some foods; many natural phenomena
class 4mass nouns
class 5the two staple foods: sago tree and banana
class 6arrows, coconuts, and rice (traded items)

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]

Burmeso basic vocabulary
glosssingularplural
‘bird’tahabotohwodo
‘blood’sarsarido
‘bone’hiwrafhimaruro
‘breast’mommomut
‘ear’ara
‘eat’bomo
‘egg’kahupkohuro
‘eye’anaranuro
‘fire’horhoremir
‘give’i ~ o
‘hair’ihnaihiro
‘leg’agoagoro
‘louse’hati
‘man’tamodit
‘name’ahau
‘one’neisano
‘see’ihi
‘stone’akohiruro
‘sun’misiabomisiado
‘tooth’arawarararuro
‘tree’hamanhememido
‘water’bawbagaruro
‘woman’nawaknudo

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

glosssingularplural
‘man’tamodit
‘banana’mibomirar
‘dog’jamojuwdo
‘pig’sibosirudo
white cockatooayabayot
‘house’konorkonodo
‘mat’wirawirasamir

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

glossBurmeso
headagum
hairihiro
eyejenar
toothararuro
legjago
lousehati
dogjamo
pigsibo
birdtohodo
eggkohũp
bloodsar
bonehiurap
skinasi memiro
treehaman
mantamo
sunmisiavo
waterbau
firehor
stoneako
nameahau
eatbomo
oneneisano
twosor

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. Haspelmath, Martin. "Grammatical, Gender and Linguistic Complexity Volume I: General issues and Specific studies". langsci-press.org. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  4. 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.
  5. 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
  6. 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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