Omurano is a language isolate formerly spoken in Peru. It is also known as Humurana, Roamaina, Numurana, Umurano, and Mayna. The language is only remembered by under ten people as of 2013.

Geographical distribution

It was spoken near the Urituyacu River (a tributary of the Marañón River); as of 1964, it was spoken on the Nucuray River.

Classification

Previous proposals have frequently linked Omurano with Zaparoan, though Fernando de Carvalho (2013) finds no evidence for this. Tovar (1961) linked Omurano to Taushiro (and later Taushiro with Kandoshi); Kaufman (1994) found the links reasonable, and in 2007 he classified Omurano and Taushiro (but not Kandoshi) as Zaparo–Yaguan languages. Maynas, once mistaken for a synonym, is a separate language.

History

The name "Omurano" is first mentioned in 1743 in a letter by the Jesuit . By the time of the Amazon rubber cycle, the Omurano had been severely reduced and began intermarrying with the Urarina, who had migrated to the area in the 19th century. By 1925, only 13 men, eight women, and three children, who lived on the tributary of Yanayacu, were enumerated by Günter Tessmann, who collected a wordlist of the language and published it five years later. In the early 1940s, the Omurano were decimated by a measles epidemic, completely wiping out the population on the Yanayacu. The language was presumed to have become extinct by 1958 from epidemics of measles and whooping cough according to a survey of the region by the Summer Institute of Linguistics, though this did not actually cause the extinction of Omurano. In 2011, a rememberer was found who knew some 20 words in Omurano; he claimed that there were still people who could speak it. Less than ten people still remember the language as of 2013; they were born between the 1940s and 1980s. The community has otherwise switched to Urarina, another language isolate.

Language contact

According to Marcelo Jolkesky (2016), there are lexical similarities with the Urarina, Arawak, Zaparo, and Leko language families due to contact.

Phonology

Consonants

Omurano has 10 consonants, and, unusually, appears to lack velar consonants.

Omurano consonants

becomes before . Apart from that, no fricatives have been attested.

Vowels

Omurano has 5 vowel qualities. Nasal vowel counterparts are only present for . Length is not phonemic.

Tone

Omurano has two surface-level tones, high and low.

Morphology

Case

Omurano seems to be a nominative–accusative language, as the direct object of transitive verbs is always marked using .

Vocabulary

A word list by Tessmann (1930) is the primary source for Omurano lexical data.

Comparison

Comparison of Omurano with other languages

See also

• Maina Indians

• Extinct languages of the Marañón River basin

• Classification of indigenous languages of the Americas

Further reading

• O'Hagan, Zachary J. (2011). Omurano field notes. (Manuscript).

References