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 from a measles epidemic,[3][2] 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.
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, and unusually appears to lack velar consonants.[2]
† indicates an extinct language, italics indicates independent status of a language, bold indicates that a language family has at least 6 members, * indicates moribund status
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