Mura language


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, whistled speech, and the use of tone. In the 19th century, there were an estimated 30,000–60,000 Mura speakers. It is now spoken by only 300 Pirahã people in eight villages.

Classification

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

Dialects

Since at least Barboza Rodrigues, 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
  • Pirahã, or Pirahá, Pirahán, the name the remaining dialect goes by
  • Yahahí, also spelled Jahahi; spoken on the Branco River
On the basis of a minuscule amount of data, it would appear that Bohurá 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, or Buxivaray ~ Buxwarahay, according to Tastevin. This was pronounced Murá by their neighbors, the Torá and Matanawi. In his vocabulary, Rodrigues lists Bohura for the people and bhũrai-ada "Mura language" for the language, from the Mura of the Manicoré River; Tastevin has Bohurai and bohuarai-arasé for the same. They also record,

Vocabulary

lists the following basic vocabulary items for Mura language varieties.
Below is a comparison of Mura and Pirahã words from Salles :