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Burmeso language

{{Short description|Papuan language}}

{{Distinguish|Burmese language}}

{{Infobox language

|name=Burmeso

|altname=Taurap

|region=Papua: Mamberamo Raya Regency, Mamberamo Tengah subdistrict, Burmeso village on the banks of the Middle Mamberamo River

|speakers=250

|date=1998

|ref=e18

|familycolor=Papuan

|fam1=West Papuan or language isolate

|fam2=(extended) East Bird's Head

|iso3=bzu

|glotto=burm1264

|glottorefname=Burmeso

}}

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 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. The language has very distinct grammatical structure.{{Cite web|last=Haspelmath|first=Martin|title=Grammatical, Gender and Linguistic Complexity Volume I: General issues and Specific studies|url=https://langsci-press.org/catalog/view/223/1567/1648-1|website=langsci-press.org|access-date=2021-06-14}} It has SOV word order.

Phonology

class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+ Consonants:

colspan="2" |

! Labial

! Alveolar

! Palatal

! Velar

! Glottal

colspan="2" | Nasal

| {{IPA link|m}} || {{IPA link|n}} || || ||

rowspan="2" | Plosive

! {{small|voiceless}}

| || {{IPA link|t}} || || {{IPA link|k}}

|

{{small|voiced}}

| {{IPA link|b}} || {{IPA link|d}} || {{IPA link|ʤ}} || {{IPA link|ɡ}} ||

rowspan="2" | Fricative

! {{small|plain}}

| {{IPA link|ɸ}} || {{IPA link|s}} || || || {{IPA link|h}}

{{small|labial}}

| || || || || {{IPA link|hʷ}}

colspan="2" | Liquid

| || {{IPA link|r}} || || ||

colspan="2" | Semivowel

| {{IPA link|w}} || || {{IPA link|j}} || ||

Probable sound changes proposed by Foley (2018):

  • *p > /ɸ/
  • *tʃ > /s/

class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+ Vowels:

!

FrontBack
Close

| {{IPA link|i}} || {{IPA link|u}}

Mid

| {{IPA link|e}} || {{IPA link|o}}

Open

| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|a}}

Pronouns

Burmeso independent pronouns are:

:

{{table}}

! !! sg !! du !! pl

1

| da || day || boro

2

| ba || || bito

Nouns

Burmeso has six noun classes, which are:

:

{{table}}

! class !! semantic category

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

Burmeso nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.{{cite book |last=Foley |first=William A. |author-link=William A. Foley |editor1-last=Palmer |editor1-first=Bill |date=2018 |title=The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide |chapter=The morphosyntactic typology of Papuan languages |series= The World of Linguistics |volume=4 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |pages=895–938 |isbn=978-3-11-028642-7}} Singular concordial suffixes are:

  • -ab ‘masculine’
  • -an ‘feminine’
  • -ora ‘neuter’

Examples of nominal concordial suffixes in usage:

{{interlinear|number=(1)

|koya bek-ab

|grandfather good-M.SG

|‘Grandfather is good.’}}

{{interlinear|number=(2)

|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):{{cite book |last=Foley |first=William A. |editor1-last=Palmer |editor1-first=Bill |date=2018 |title=The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide |chapter=The languages of Northwest New Guinea |series= The World of Linguistics |volume=4 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |pages=433–568 |isbn=978-3-11-028642-7}}

:

{{table}}

|+ Burmeso basic vocabulary

! gloss !! singular !! plural

‘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.

:

{{table}}

! gloss !! singular !! plural

‘man’tamodit
‘banana’mibomirar
‘dog’jamojuwdo
‘pig’sibosirudo
‘white cockatoo’ayabayot
‘house’konorkonodo
‘mat’wirawirasamir

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),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}} as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:{{Cite web |url=http://transnewguinea.org/language/burmeso |title=TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea |last=Greenhill |first=Simon |date=2016| access-date=2020-11-05}}

:

class="wikitable sortable"

! gloss !! Burmeso

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

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.

{{Papuan languages}}

{{Languages of Indonesia}}

{{West Papuan languages}}

Category:Languages of Western New Guinea

Category:East Bird's Head languages

Category:Unclassified languages of New Guinea