Burmeso, also called Taurap, is a Papuan language spoken by about 250 to 300 people in the village of Burmeso on the middle Mamberamo River, Mamberamo Tengah subdistrict, Mamberamo Raya Regency, in Indonesia's Papua province. Its classification has shifted: Stephen Wurm and William Foley once treated it as a language isolate, but Malcolm Ross later placed it as a branch of an East Bird's Head-Sentani family within the broader West Papuan grouping. Burmeso is grammatically distinctive for a Papuan language, with six noun classes, three genders marked by concordial suffixes, and subject-object-verb word order.
Facts
RegionBurmeso village, mid Mamberamo River, Mamberamo Tengah subdistrict, Mamberamo Raya Regency, Papua province, Indonesia 1 Speaker CountEthnologue's cited figure is 250 (1998); the article's own running estimate is some 300. Proto-Language StatusNo independently reconstructed proto-language. Malcolm Ross classifies Burmeso as a branch of his proposed East Bird's Head-Sentani family, while Stephen Wurm and William A. Foley had earlier treated it as a language isolate; the classification is disputed rather than settled. 1 In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Asia, found in there.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Burmeso Language
Wikimedia FoundationLead section, location sentence
by some 300 people in Burmeso village along the mid Mamberamo River in Mamberamo Tengah subdistrict, Mamberamo Raya Regency, Papua province, Indonesia
Infobox, speakers field
(250 cited 1998)
Classification section
Burmeso forms a branch of Malcolm Ross's family of East Bird's Head, Sentani languages, but had been considered a language isolate by Stephen Wurm and William A. Foley.
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