Omurano language

Not to be confused with Maynas language.

Omurano is a language isolate from Peru.^[2] It is also known as Humurana, Roamaina, Numurana, Umurano, and Mayna. The language was presumed to have become extinct by 1958,^[3] but in 2011 a rememberer was found who knew some 20 words in Omurano; he claimed that there were still people who could speak it.^[1] The community has otherwise switched to Urarina, another language isolate.

Omurano
Mayna
Native to	Peru
Ethnicity	Maina
Extinct	2006, with the death of Esteban Macusi[1] <10 rememberers (2013)[2]
Language family	Language isolate (Saparo–Yawan?)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	omu
Glottolog	omur1241

It was spoken near the Urituyacu River (a tributary of the Marañón River),^[4] or on the Nucuray River according to Loukotka (1968).^[5]

Classification

Tovar (1961) linked Omurano to Taushiro (and later Taushiro with Kandoshi); Kaufman (1994) finds the links reasonable, and in 2007 he classified Omurano and Taushiro (but not Kandoshi) as Saparo–Yawan languages.

Maynas, once mistaken for a synonym, is a separate language.

Despite there being previous proposals linking Omurano with Zaparoan, de Carvalho (2013) finds no evidence for this.^[4]

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Urarina, Arawak, Zaparo, and Leko language families due to contact.^[6]

Phonology

Consonants

Omurano has 10 consonants. No fricative or velar consonants have been attested.^[2]

Omurano consonants

	Bilabial		Alveolar		Alveopalatal	Palatal
	voiceless	voiced	voiceless	voiced
Stop	p	b	t
Nasal		m		n		ɲ
Affricate					ʧ
Flap				ɾ
Lateral				l
Glide						j

/b/ becomes [β] before /e/.

Vowels

Omurano has 5 vowel qualities. Nasal vowel counterparts are only present for [i]. Length is not phonemic.^[2]

	Front		Central	Back
	plain	nasal
High	i	ĩ		u
Mid	e			o
Low			a

Tone

Omurano has two surface-level tones, high and low.^[2]

Vocabulary

A word list by Tessmann (1930) is the primary source for Omurano lexical data.^[7]

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.^[5]

gloss	Omurana
one	nadzóra
two	dzoʔóra
head	na-neyalok
eye	an-atn
woman	mparáwan
fire	íno
sun	héna
star	dzuñ
maize	aíchia
house	ána
white	chalama

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).