Meriam ( ulk, Meriam Mìr; also ''Miriam, Meryam, Mer, Mir, Miriam-Mir'', etc. and ''Eastern, Isten, Esten'' and ''Able Able'') or the Eastern Torres Strait language is the language of the people of the small islands of ''Mer'' (
Murray Island), ''Waier'' and ''Dauar'', ''Erub'' (
Darnley Island), and ''Ugar'' (
Stephens Island) in the eastern
Torres Strait,
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
, Australia. In the Western Torres Strait language,
Kalaw Lagaw Ya
''Kalau Lagau Ya'', ''Kalaw Lagaw Ya'', ''Kala Lagaw Ya'' (), or the ''Western Torres Strait language'' (also several other names, see below), is the language indigenous to the central and western Torres Strait Islands, Queensland, Australia. O ...
, it is called ''Mœyam'' or ''Mœyamau Ya''. It is the only
Papuan language in
Australian
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal A ...
territory.
Classification
Meriam was classified in the
Eastern Trans-Fly family of the
Trans–New Guinea Phylum by
Stephen Wurm, who however felt that these have retained remnants of pre-Trans–New Guinea languages; this is followed by
Ethnologue (2005). In 2005
Malcolm Ross concluded that the Eastern Trans-Fly languages were not part of the Trans–New Guinea phylum.
R. M. W. Dixon (2002) regards claims of a relationship between the Fly River languages and Meriam as unproven, though what he bases his claim on is not clear, as Meriam Mir has a high cognacy rate with its sister languages, and a certain amount of mutual intelligibility is claimed by Meriam speakers. Mitchell finds that Meriam Mìr has 78% cognates with its sister Trans-Fly Papuan languages, the remaining vocabulary being mainly of Australian origin. Such Trans-Fly cognates include personal pronouns, and verbal and nominal morphology.
Status
In the
2016 Australian census, 217 speakers were recorded,
[ up slightly on the previous (2011) census, which recorded 186.][ It is considered an endangered language by ]UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
.[
There is a push to preserve the language in North Queensland. A group of Torres Strait Islander people in ]Mackay Mackay may refer to:
*Clan Mackay, the Scottish clan from which the surname "MacKay" derives
Mackay may also refer to:
Places Australia
* Mackay Region, a local government area
** Mackay, Queensland, a city in the above region
*** Mackay Airpor ...
region, where there are only four fluent speakers left, are practising and teaching traditional hymn
A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hy ...
s sung in Meriam Mir in an effort to help more people to learn the language and pass it down. It is hoped that a program to teach the hymns will be introduced into schools.
Meriam Mìr and its neighbours
Meriam has around 40 percent of its vocabulary in common with its unrelated Western Torres Strait neighbour Kala Lagaw Ya, which is an Australian language
Australia legally has no official language. However, English is by far the most commonly spoken and has been entrenched as the ''de facto'' national language since European settlement. "English has no de jure status but it is so entrenched ...
. The shared words cover a wide range of semantic domains (body parts, kin, human classification, language, mythology, ceremony, artefacts, topography, natural elements, marine life, qualities, locations, directions and time), though not verbs. This latter strengthens arguments about genetic diversity, however there is still much to suggest mutual influence. The common vocabulary range from "exact cognates" to words that appear related, but have undergone semantic changes, as in the following selected from a list of 250 items (Mitchell 1995) (where exact "cognates" number 62 (24.8%), partial "cognates" 26 (10%) and "cognates" with semantic differentiation number 34 (13.7%), 22 "cognates" in total, 48.8%:
There are also various items of semantic relationship, but not formal relationship, such as WCL ''puuy(i)'', MM ''lu'' "plant, tree; magic".
Mitchell and Piper (unpublished research notes) used the Holman et al. 40-word list below, which shows 9 (22.5%) exact items, 5 (12.5%) partial, and 3 (7.5%) semantically related words. However, this list was designed for use with Euro-Asian languages, and is perhaps somewhat inappropriate; for example, no horned animals exist, neither language has a verb ‘come’, and Holman et al. assume one form for 'we'; WCL has 4, and MM has 2.
PCD Proto Central-District Papuan Austronesian, PETrf Proto East Trans Fly; POC Proto Oceanic Austronesian; PP Proto Paman; PSEPap Proto South-East Papuan Austronesian [neighbouring languages noted : Papuan : Gizrra, Bine/Kunini, Wipi (Eastern Trans Fly Family), Kiwai (Trans-New Guinea Phylum), Idi, Agöb (Pahoturi family); Australian : Gudang, and the Northern Cape York Language, dialects : Wudhadhi, Atampaya, Angkamuthi, Yadhaykenu]
Recent loans
The main source of loan words to the language since the mid 1800s has been Yumplatòk (Torres Strait Creole) and English. There are also some minor loans from Lifu/Drehu, Polynesian (in particular Samoan and to a lesser extent Rotuman), Indonesian, Philippine, Japanese, and European origin. Many such outsiders were recruited – or in some rare cases black-birded – in the 19th century for pearl diving and other marine work, while others (from Lifu and Samoa) were missionaries with the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Dialects
The language is currently dialectless. However, there was once a separate dialect spoken on Erub
Darnley Island or ''Erub'' in the native Papuan language, Meriam Mir, is an island formed by volcanic action and situated in the eastern section of the Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia. It is one of the Torres Strait Islands and is locat ...
and Ugar Ugar may refer to:
* Ugar Khurd, town in the state of Karnataka, India
* Ugar Budruk, village in the state of Karnataka, India
* Ugar (river), Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Ugar Island, census locality in the Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia
**Step ...
islands, characterised in part by the retention of phonemic distinctions between 'ng', 'g', 'n' and 'r' where these have fallen together in two ways in Meriam Mir. The sound 'ng' in Modern Meriam has become 'n' at the beginning of words and 'g' within words; 'n' in many cases has become 'r' within words. Examples are remembered in one important Erub folktale (Lawrie 1970:283–284):
Erub : Aka nade ki andinane? Ge au?
Mer : Aka nade ki ardirare? Ge au?
''Where will we put it? There?''
Erub : Mena inggandane/ingandane! Keniba uzen unken a keniba imut unken.
Mer : Mena igardare! Keriba uzer urker a keriba imut urker.
''Keep carrying it! Our paddles and our poling poles are still strong.''
The earliest records (early 19th century) of Meriam Mìr included the phrase debelang ''good taste/nice'', in present-day Meriam Mìr debe lag. This shows that the 'ng' > 'n'/'g' change is of fairly recent date; lang, now lag, is identical to the Gizrra lang of the same meaning.
Phonology
Vowels
The sounds represented by and are allophonic. appears mainly in syllables ''before'' the stress accent and optionally in open unstressed syllables otherwise. appears in stressed syllables and in unstressed closed syllables.
For some speakers the following pairs exhibit variation, and perhaps have unidentified allophonic variation: and (mainly Erub/Ulag), and (mainly Mer), and , and , and and . Older speakers appear to keep the vowels more distinct.
Consonants
Stress
Stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
is contrastive in Meriam and can occur on the first or second syllable. Examples include ''tábo'' 'snake', ''tabó'' 'neck'.
Sign language
The Torres Strait Islanders have signed forms of their languages, though it is not clear from records that they are particularly well-developed compared to other Australian Aboriginal sign languages
Many Australian Aboriginal cultures have or traditionally had a manually coded language, a signed counterpart of their oral language. This appears to be connected with various speech taboos between certain kin or at particular times, such as ...
.[ Kendon, A. (1988) ''Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press]
See also
* Torres Strait Island languages
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Opolera Wetpur
Anglican Holy Communion service in Meriam
{{Languages of Australia
Eastern Trans-Fly languages
Torres Strait Islands culture
Languages of Australia