Sumuri or Sumeri (one of two

Papuan languages 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 ...

also known as Tanah Merah) is a language spoken in Sumuri District,

Teluk Bintuni Regency Teluk Bintuni Regency or Bintuni Bay Regency is a regency of West Papua Province of Indonesia. It covers an area of 18,637 km2, comprising administrative districts on three sides of Bintuni Bay, a gulf that separates the Bird's Head Peninsula an ...

on 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 ...

by about a thousand people.

Distribution

In Sumuri District of

, Sumuri people reside in Tofoi (district capital), Materabu Jaya, Forada, Agoda, Saengga, Tanah Merah Baru, Onar Lama, and Onar Baru villages.

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 A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

. 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 The Asmat–Muli Strait languages are a branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive Language family, family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands, a region corres ...

and their relatives further east. Sumeri has previously been linked to the

Mairasi languages The Mairasi languages, also known as Etna Bay are a small independent language family, family of Papuan languages in the classifications of Malcolm Ross (linguist), Malcolm Ross and Timothy Usher, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New ...

, but those do not share the TNG pronouns of Sumeri. The Sumeri pronouns are: : 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), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: :

References

Notes

{{Papuan languages Trans–New Guinea languages Languages of Western New Guinea Language isolates of New Guinea

Distribution

Classification

Vocabulary

See also

References

Notes