| Burmeso | |
|---|---|
| Taurap | |
| Region | Papua:Mamberamo Raya Regency,Mamberamo Tengah subdistrict, Burmeso village on the banks of the MiddleMamberamo River |
Native speakers | (250 cited 1998)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bzu |
| Glottolog | burm1264 |
| ELP | Burmeso |
TheBurmeso language, also known asTaurap (from the wordtauraf meaning 'language'),[2] by some 300 people in Burmeso village along the midMamberamo River inMamberamo Tengah subdistrict,Mamberamo Raya Regency,Papua province,Indonesia. It is surrounded by theKwerba languages to the north, theLakes Plain languages to the south, and theEast Cenderawasih Bay languages to the west.
Burmeso forms a branch ofMalcolm Ross's family ofEast Bird's Head – Sentani languages, but had been considered alanguage isolate byStephen Wurm andWilliam A. Foley.[3] The language has very distinct grammatical structure.[4] It hasSOV word order.[3]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | t | k | |||
| voiced | b | d | ʤ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | plain | ɸ | s | h | ||
| labial | hʷ | |||||
| Liquid | r | |||||
| Semivowel | w | j | ||||
Probable sound changes proposed by Foley (2018):
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
Burmeso independent pronouns are:[3]
| sg | du | pl | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | da | day | boro |
| 2 | ba | bito |
Burmeso has sixnoun classes, which are:[3]
| class | semantic category |
|---|---|
| 1 | male humans and associated things (contains half of all nouns) |
| 2 | female humans and associated things |
| 3 | body parts, insects, and lizards; material culture like axes and canoes, some foods; many natural phenomena |
| 4 | mass nouns |
| 5 | the two staple foods: sago tree and banana |
| 6 | arrows, coconuts, and rice (traded items) |
Burmeso nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.[5] Singular concordial suffixes are:
Examples of nominal concordial suffixes in usage:
Basic vocabulary of Burmeso (singular and plural nominal forms) listed inFoley (2018):[3]
| gloss | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| ‘bird’ | tahabo | tohwodo |
| ‘blood’ | sar | sarido |
| ‘bone’ | hiwraf | himaruro |
| ‘breast’ | mom | momut |
| ‘ear’ | ara | |
| ‘eat’ | bomo | |
| ‘egg’ | kahup | kohuro |
| ‘eye’ | anar | anuro |
| ‘fire’ | hor | horemir |
| ‘give’ | i ~ o | |
| ‘hair’ | ihna | ihiro |
| ‘leg’ | ago | agoro |
| ‘louse’ | hati | |
| ‘man’ | tamo | dit |
| ‘name’ | ahau | |
| ‘one’ | neisano | |
| ‘see’ | ihi | |
| ‘stone’ | ako | hiruro |
| ‘sun’ | misiabo | misiado |
| ‘tooth’ | arawar | araruro |
| ‘tree’ | haman | hememido |
| ‘water’ | baw | bagaruro |
| ‘woman’ | nawak | nudo |
Many Burmeso nouns display irregular and suppletive plural forms.[3]
| gloss | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| ‘man’ | tamo | dit |
| ‘banana’ | mibo | mirar |
| ‘dog’ | jamo | juwdo |
| ‘pig’ | sibo | sirudo |
| ‘white cockatoo’ | ayab | ayot |
| ‘house’ | konor | konodo |
| ‘mat’ | wira | wirasamir |
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),[6] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[7]
| gloss | Burmeso |
|---|---|
| head | agum |
| hair | ihiro |
| eye | jenar |
| tooth | araruro |
| leg | jago |
| louse | hati |
| dog | jamo |
| pig | sibo |
| bird | tohodo |
| egg | kohũp |
| blood | sar |
| bone | hiurap |
| skin | asi memiro |
| tree | haman |
| man | tamo |
| sun | misiavo |
| water | bau |
| fire | hor |
| stone | ako |
| name | ahau |
| eat | bomo |
| one | neisano |
| two | sor |