Meriam
Eastern Torres Strait
Meriam Mir
Region	Murray Island,Torres Strait,Queensland,Australia
Ethnicity	Meriam
Native speakers	217 (2016 census)[1]
Language family	Trans-Fly? Eastern Trans-Fly Meriam
Dialects	Erub Ugar
Signed forms	Eastern Torres Strait Islander Sign Language
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ulk
Glottolog	meri1244
AIATSIS[2]	Y3
ELP	Meriam
Linguasphere	20-OD(A-a)
Meriam Mir is classified as Definitely Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)
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Meriam (Meriam Mir:Meriam Mìr; alsoMiriam, Meryam, Mer, Mir, Miriam-Mir, etc. andEastern, Isten, Esten andAble Able) or theEastern Torres Strait language is the language of the people of the small islands ofMer (Murray Island),Waier andDauar,Erub (Darnley Island), andUgar (Stephens Island) in the easternTorres Strait,Queensland, Australia. In the Western Torres Strait language,Kalaw Lagaw Ya, it is calledMœyam orMœyamau Ya. It is the onlyPapuan language inAustralian territory.

Meriam was classified in theEastern Trans-Fly family of theTrans–New Guinea Phylum byStephen Wurm, who however felt that these have retained remnants of pre-Trans–New Guinea languages; this is followed byEthnologue (2005). In 2005Malcolm Ross concluded that the Eastern Trans-Fly languages were not part of the Trans–New Guinea phylum.R. M. W. Dixon (2002) regards claims of a relationship between the Fly River languages and Meriam as unproven, though what he bases his claim on is not clear, as Meriam Mir has a high cognacy rate with its sister languages, and a certain amount of mutual intelligibility is claimed by Meriam speakers. Mitchell finds that Meriam Mìr has 78% cognates with its sister Trans-Fly Papuan languages, the remaining vocabulary being mainly of Australian origin.^[4] Such Trans-Fly cognates include personal pronouns, and verbal and nominal morphology.

In the2016 Australian census, 217 speakers were recorded,^[1] up slightly on the previous (2011) census, which recorded 186.^[2] It is considered anendangered language byUNESCO.^[5]

There is a push to preserve the language inNorth Queensland. A group ofTorres Strait Islander people inMackay region, where there are only four fluent speakers left, are practising and teaching traditionalhymns sung in Meriam Mir in an effort to help more people to learn the language and pass it down. It is hoped that a program to teach the hymns will be introduced into schools.^[5]

Meriam has around 40 percent of its vocabulary in common with its unrelated Western Torres Strait neighbourKala Lagaw Ya, which is anAustralian language.^[4] The shared words cover a wide range of semantic domains (body parts, kin, human classification, language, mythology, ceremony, artefacts, topography, natural elements, marine life, qualities, locations, directions and time), though not verbs. This latter strengthens arguments about genetic diversity, however there is still much to suggest mutual influence. The common vocabulary range from "exact cognates" to words that appear related, but have undergone semantic changes, as in the following selected from a list of 250 items (Mitchell 1995) (where exact "cognates" number 62 (24.8%), partial "cognates" 26 (10%) and "cognates" with semantic differentiation number 34 (13.7%), [122 "cognates" in total, 48.8%]):

There are also various items of semantic relationship, but not formal relationship, such as WCLpuuy(i), MMlu "plant, tree; magic".

Mitchell and Piper (unpublished research notes) used the Holman et al. 40-word list below, which shows 9 (22.5%) exact items, 5 (12.5%) partial, and 3 (7.5%) semantically related words. However, this list was designed for use with Euro-Asian languages, and is perhaps somewhat inappropriate; for example, no horned animals exist, neither language has a verb ‘come’, and Holman et al. assume one form for 'we'; WCL has 4, and MM has 2.

PCD Proto Central-District Papuan Austronesian, PETrf Proto East Trans Fly; POC Proto Oceanic Austronesian; PP Proto Paman; PSEPap Proto South-East Papuan Austronesian [neighbouring languages noted : Papuan : Gizrra, Bine/Kunini, Wipi (Eastern Trans Fly Family), Kiwai (Trans-New Guinea Phylum), Idi, Agöb (Pahoturi family); Australian : Gudang, and the Northern Cape York Language, dialects : Wudhadhi, Atampaya, Angkamuthi, Yadhaykenu]

The main source ofloan words to the language since the mid 1800s has been Yumplatòk (Torres Strait Creole) and English. There are also some minor loans fromLifu/Drehu, Polynesian (in particularSamoan and to a lesser extentRotuman), Indonesian, Philippine, Japanese, and European origin. Many such outsiders were recruited – or in some rare casesblack-birded – in the 19th century for pearl diving and other marine work, while others (from Lifu and Samoa) were missionaries with theBritish and Foreign Bible Society.^{[citation needed]}

The language is currently dialectless. However, there was once a separate dialect spoken onErub andUgar islands, characterised in part by the retention of phonemic distinctions between 'ng', 'g', 'n' and 'r' where these have fallen together in two ways in Meriam Mir. The sound 'ng' in Modern Meriam has become 'n' at the beginning of words and 'g' within words; 'n' in many cases has become 'r' within words. Examples are remembered in one important Erub folktale (Lawrie 1970:283–284):

Erub :Aka nade ki andinane? Ge au?

Mer  :Aka nade ki ardirare? Ge au?

Where will we put it? There?

Erub :Mena inggandane/ingandane! Keniba uzen unken a keniba imut unken.

Mer  :Mena igardare! Keriba uzer urker a keriba imut urker.

Keep carrying it! Our paddles and our poling poles are still strong.

The earliest records (early 19th century) of Meriam Mìr included the phrasedebelanggood taste/nice, in present-day Meriam Mìrdebe lag. This shows that the 'ng' > 'n'/'g' change is of fairly recent date;lang, nowlag, is identical to theGizrralang of the same meaning.

The sounds represented by[a] and[ʌ] are allophonic.[ʌ] appears mainly in syllablesbefore the stress accent and optionally in open unstressed syllables otherwise.[a] appears in stressed syllables and in unstressed closed syllables.

For some speakers the following pairs exhibit variation, and perhaps have unidentified allophonic variation:[e],[ɛ] and[ɪ] (mainly Erub/Ulag),[ɪ] and[i] (mainly Mer),[u] and[ʊ],[ʊ] and[o], and[o] and[ɔ]. Older speakers appear to keep the vowels more distinct.

/ɾ/ is heard as[ɹ] when occurring before or after consonants.

Stress is contrastive in Meriam and can occur on the first or second syllable. Examples includetábo 'snake',tabó 'neck'.

The Torres Strait Islanders havesigned forms of their languages,^[6] though it is not clear from records that they are particularly well-developed compared to otherAustralian Aboriginal sign languages.^[7]

• Torres Strait Island languages

• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002).Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Mitchell, Rod (April 2015), "Ngalmun Lagaw Yangukudu: The Language of our Homelandin Goemulgaw Lagal: Cultural and Natural Histories of the Island of Mabuyag, Torres Strait",Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Culture,8 (1):323–446,ISSN 1440-4788
• Passi, Gamalai Ken; Piper, Nick (1994). "Meryam Mir". In Nick Thieberger; William McGregor (eds.).Macquarie Aboriginal Words. Macquarie Library. pp. 320–351.
• Piper, N. (1989).A sketch grammar of Meryam Mer. MA thesis. Australian National University.
• Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.).Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66.
• Lawrie, Margaret (1970).Myths and Legends of Torres Strait. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press.

Meriam language test ofWikipedia atWikimedia Incubator

• Greenhill, Simon J."Meriam".Pronoun Paradigms Database.
• Opolera Wetpur Anglican Holy Communion service in Meriam
• Kala Lagaw Ya & Miriam Mir (Torres Strait Islands) Community Language Journey Digital Story,State Library of Queensland. Part ofSpoken: Celebrating Queensland Languages Digital Stories Collection

• Eastern Trans-Fly languages
• Culture of the Torres Strait Islands
• Languages of Australia

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from July 2016
• Use Australian English from July 2018
• All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
• Language articles with Linguasphere code
• ISO language articles citing sources other than Ethnologue
• Articles containing Meriam Mir-language text
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