Sumuri language

Not to be confused with Sumerian language.

This article is about the "Tanah Merah" language spoken on Bomberai Peninsula on the western coast of Papua. For the "Tanah Merah" language spoken on Tanahmerah Bay on the northern coast of Papua, see Tabla language.

Sumuri or Sumeri (one of two Papuan languages also known as Tanah Merah) is a language spoken in Sumuri District, Teluk Bintuni Regency on the Bomberai Peninsula by about a thousand people.

Sumuri
Sumeri
Tanah Merah
Region	Sumuri District, Teluk Bintuni Regency, West Papua (Bapai Rover and Gondu River areas)
Ethnicity	Sumuri
Native speakers	(500 cited 1978)[1]
Language family	Trans–New Guinea or language isolate Sumuri
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tcm
Glottolog	tana1288
ELP	Tanahmerah
Map: The Sumeri language of New Guinea (located at left, in the Bird's Head)   The Sumeri language   Other Trans–New Guinea languages   Other Papuan languages   Austronesian languages   Uninhabited

Distribution

In Sumuri District of Teluk Bintuni Regency, Sumuri people reside in Tofoi (district capital), Materabu Jaya, Forada, Agoda, Saengga, Tanah Merah Baru, Onar Lama, and Onar Baru villages.^[2]

Classification

In the classifications of Malcolm Ross (2005) and Timothy Usher (2020), Sumeri forms an independent branch of the Trans–New Guinea family, but Palmer (2018) classifies it as a language isolate.^[3] It does not fit in with any of the established branches of TNG, but based on what little data there is, it would seem to be closest to either the Berau Gulf branches (i.e. South Bird's Head, West Bomberai etc.) or the Asmat–Mombum languages and their relatives further east.

Sumeri has previously been linked to the Mairasi languages, but those do not share the TNG pronouns of Sumeri. The Sumeri pronouns are:

	sg	pl
1ex	na-fea	kiria
1in		kigokomaka
2	ka-fea	ki-fia

There are no 3rd-person personal pronouns, only demonstratives. The pronouns appear to reflect pTNG *na 1sg, *ga 2sg, and *gi 2pl.

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),^[4] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:^[5]

gloss	Tanah Merah
head	breŋka; kidaso
hair	nisa; nua
eye	ka-bita; ndou
tooth	eti; kioni
leg	kiwi; oto
louse	ia; miŋ
dog	ibe; yoku
pig	opo; tayna
bird	awə; finanaburu
egg	doŋ; no
blood	kinatera; sa
bone	naso; oro
skin	ele; katane
tree	o; ono; taya
man	do; maopa
sun	soniŋ; weti
water	bu; moda
fire	avonabe; siŋ
stone	kenade; oru
name	nigia; wado
eat	anine; taue
one	besika; naduma
two	bi; wanitabo

See also

• Mairasi languages

References

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. doi:10.15144/PL-572. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.