Mairasi ( Faranyao and Kaniran) is a
Papuan language
The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a ...
of the
Bomberai Peninsula
Bomberai Peninsula () is located in the Western New Guinea region. It is south of the Bird's Head Peninsula, and Bintuni Bay separates the two peninsulas. To the west lies the Sebakor Bay and to the south Kamrau Bay. On the southeast Arguni ...
of
West Papua,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
.
The Northeastern dialect may be a distinct language.
Distribution
Locations:
*
Kaimana Regency
Kaimana Regency is a Regencies of Indonesia, regency in the south of West Papua (province), West Papua province of Indonesia. It covers an area of 18,500 sq. km, and had a population of 46,249 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, ...
**Interior villages: Umbran, Jamna Fata, Matna, Tarwata, Sara, Kasira, Orai, Wangatnau, Faranyau, and Sarifan
**Coastal villages: Sisir, Foroma Jaya, Warasi, Lobo, Lomira, Morona, Nanggwaromi, Omay (May may), and Warika
*
Teluk Wondama Regency
Teluk Wondama Regency or Wondama Bay Regency (; Dutch: ''Regentschap Wondammen-baai'') is a regency of West Papua province of Indonesia. It covers a land area of 4,844.035 km2, and had a population of 26,321 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Sta ...
**Naikere District villages: Sararti, Oya, Yabore, Wosimo, Undurara, and Inyora
Phonology
Pronouns
Mairasi possessor prefixes are:
:
Morphology
Case markers
Noun phrase
case markers in Mairasi:
*instrumental suffix -''t''
*locative postposition ''ar''
*
allative postposition ''ev(i)''
Some examples:
Possessors
Mairasi possessor prefixes:
:
Examples of
inalienable possessors:
Directionals
Mairasi has two directional suffixes, which are only used with movement verbs.
*''-aʔi'' ‘up, inland’
*''-ari'' ‘down, seaward’
Examples of directional suffixes in use:
Animacy
Animacy
Animacy (antonym: inanimacy) is a grammatical and semantic feature, existing in some languages, expressing how sentient or alive the referent of a noun is. Widely expressed, animacy is one of the most elementary principles in languages around ...
is marked by the adjective modifier ''n''-, as exemplified by the contrast in the following two noun phrases.
Vowel changes can modify the number of animate nouns:
References
{{Languages of Indonesia
Languages of Western New Guinea
Mairasi languages