Mairasi language
Mairasi (AKA Faranyao and Kaniran) is a Papuan language of the Bomberai Peninsula of West Papua, Indonesia.
| Mairasi | |
|---|---|
| Native to | West Papua, Indonesia |
| Region | Bomberai Peninsula |
Native speakers | 3,300 (1996)[1] |
Mairasi
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | zrs |
| Glottolog | nucl1594[2] |
The Northeastern dialect may be a distinct language.
Morphology
Case markers
Noun phrase case markers in Mairasi:[3]:546
- instrumental suffix -t
- locative postposition ar
- allative postposition ev(i)
Some examples:
- ovuru-t /machete-INSTR/ ‘with a machete’
- weso ar /house LOC/ ‘in the house’
- mundu evi /village ALL/ ‘to the village’
Possessors
Mairasi possessor prefixes:[3]:546
sg pl 1 o- ee- 2 ne- e- 3 na- ne-
Examples of inalienable possessors:
- ee-rovo /1PL.POSS-hand/ ‘our hands’
- na-iambi /3SG.POSS-skin/ ‘his skin’
Directionals
Mairasi has two directional suffixes, which are only used with movement verbs.[3]:549
- -aʔi ‘up, inland’
- -ari ‘down, seaward’
Examples of directional suffixes in use:
- o-is-aʔi /1SG.SBJ-stand-up/ ‘I stand up’
- o-fon-ari /1SG.SBJ-sit-down/ ‘I sit down’
Animacy
Animacy is marked by the adjective modifier n-, as exemplified by the contrast in the following two noun phrases.[3]:546
- fariri Ø-avwer
- word INAN-big
- ‘a big word’
- fariri n-avwer
- word ANIM-big
- ‘a long-winded person’
Vowel changes can modify the number of animate nouns:[3]:546
- uratu n-avwer
- fish ANIM-big.SG
- ‘a big fish’
- uratu n-evwer
- fish ANIM-big.PL
- ‘big fishes’
References
- Mairasi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Mairasi". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
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