Mura language

Mura
Mura
Bohurá
Buxwaray
Region	Amazon
Ethnicity	1,500 Mura people (1995)
Native speakers	360 (2000); mostly monolingual
Language family	Macro-Warpean ? Mura–Matanawi ? Mura; ;
Dialects	Pirahã;
Writing system	Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	myp Pirahã (Mura)
Linguist List	ffg Bohura (not ISO)
	cvf Yahahi (not ISO)
Glottolog	pira1253
	The attested extent of Mura and Matanawi

Mura is a language of Amazonas, Brazil. It is most famous for Pirahã, its sole surviving dialect. Linguistically, it is typified by agglutinativity, a very small phoneme inventory (around 11 compared to around 44 in English), whistled speech, and the use of tone.

In the 19th century, there were an estimated 30,000–60,000 Mura^{[clarification needed]}. It is now spoken by only 300 Pirahã people in eight villages.

Dialects

Since at least Barboza Rodrigues (1892) [reference?], there have been three ethnic names commonly listed as dialects of Mura, or even as Muran languages. The names are:

Bohurá, or Buxwaray, the original form of the name 'Mura'; spoken on the Autaz River^[2]
Pirahã, or Pirahá, Pirahán, the name the remaining dialect goes by
Yahahí, also spelled Jahahi; spoken on the Branco River^[2]

On the basis of a minuscule amount of data, it would appear that Bohurá (Mura proper) was mutually intelligible with Pirahã; however, for Yahahí there exists only ethnographic information, and it can be assumed they spoke the same language as other Mura. Rodrigues describes the Yahahí as having come from the Branco river, a tributary of the right bank of the upper Marmelos river. The last Yahahí are said to have joined the Pirahã.

The Mura/Bohurá endonym is Buhuraen, according to Barboza Rodrigues (1892), or Buxivaray ~ Buxwarahay, according to Tastevin (1923). This was pronounced Murá by their neighbors, the Torá and Matanawi. In his vocabulary, Rodrigues lists Bohura for the people and bhurai-ada "Mura language" for the language, from the Mura of the Manicoré River; Tastevin has Bohurai and bohuarai-arase for the same. They also record,

nahi buxwara araha "That one is Mura"

yane abahi araha buxwarái "We are all Mura"

(Caution: these words need to be confirmed. The scanned text of Nimuendaju (1948) at the link has several errors, such as ⟨c⟩ for ⟨e⟩, ⟨h⟩ for ⟨b⟩, and ⟨d⟩ for ⟨á⟩.)

Genealogical relations

Mura is often proposed to be related to Matanawí. Kaufman (1994) also suggests a connection with Huarpe in his Macro-Warpean proposal.

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Mura language varieties.^[2]

gloss	Múra	Bohurá	Pirahã
one		huyiː
two		mukui
head	a-pái	hana-pai	a-paixi
ear	ku-pái	hane-apue	apu-pay
tooth	aro-pái	haine-tué	atu-pay
hand	upa	hane-uí	upai
woman	yúehẽ	kairi	yuéhe
water	pé	ipé	pé
fire	foai	huai	wái
stone	atí	atí	begé
maize	chihuha	tihoʔahai	chifuä
tapir	kabachí	kabatí	kauátei

Below is a comparison of Mura and Pirahã words from Salles (2023):^[3]^: 959

English gloss	Mura	Pirahã
long	peissí	piiʔi
short	kutjúhi	koihí
big	itokúi	itohí
male foreigner	auí	aooí
female foreigner	aurí	aogí
wild pig	bahúis	bahóisi
louse	tihyhí	tihíihi
flour	arais	ágaísi
tobacco	itíhi	tíhi
leaf	itai	tai
fire	uái	hoái
blood	bê	bií
bone	ái	aí
sleep	aitáhus	aitáhoi
die	kwoabís	koabaipí
drink	pitaissa	pitáipí
stay	abaái	abí
say	aihyahá	ahoái
sun	huisí	hisó
moon	kaãnhê	kaháíʔái
cold	arí	agí
feisty	aupís	aáopí
far	kái	kaáo
bad	babihí	baábi(hi)

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c Mura at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b ^c Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
^ Salles, Raiane (2023). "Pirahã (Apáitisí)". In Epps, Patience; Michael, Lev (eds.). Amazonian Languages: Language Isolates. Volume II: Kanoé to Yurakaré. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 957–994. ISBN 978-3-11-043273-2.

Bibliography

Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
Everett, D. L. (1992). A língua Pirahã e a teoria da sintaxe: descrição, perspectivas e teoria. Campinas: Editora da Unicamp.
Hanke, W. (1950a). O idioma Mura. Arquivos: Coletânea de documentor para a História da Amazônia, 12:3-8.
Hanke, W. (1950b). Vocabulário e idioma mura dos índios mura do rio Manicoré. Arquivos, 12:3-8.
Heinrichs, A. (1961). Questionário: Mura-Pirahã Rio Marmelos. (Questionário dos Vocabulários Padrões para estudos comparativos preliminares de línguas indígenas brasileiras.) Rio de Janeiro: Museu Nacional.
Heinrichs, A. (1963). Questionário: Mura-Pirahã Rios Marmelos e Maici. (Questionário dos Vocabulários Padrões para estudos comparativos preliminares de línguas indígenas brasileiras.) Rio de Janeiro: Museu Nacional.
Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), Atlas of the world's languages (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge.
Curt Nimuendajú (1948): "The Mura" and "The Yahahi", in Handbook of South American Indians, Volume 3: The Tropical Forest Tribes, ed. Julian H. Steward, pp. 255–269.