Omurano, also known as Humurana, Roamaina, Numurana, Umurano or Mayna, is a language isolate formerly spoken by the Maina people near the Urituyacu River, a tributary of the Marañón, and later on the Nucuray River in Peru's Amazon region. It is now effectively extinct, with fewer than ten remembered speakers as of 2013, most born between the 1940s and 1980s, and the surviving community has largely shifted to the neighboring isolate Urarina. Proposed connections to the Zaparoan family were reexamined by Fernando de Carvalho in 2013 and found unsupported, though some linguists tentatively place Omurano within a broader Saparo-Yawan grouping.
Facts
RegionFormerly spoken in Peru, near the Urituyacu River (a tributary of the Maranon) and later on the Nucuray River. 1 Speaker CountWikipedia 'Omurano language': 'The language is only remembered by under ten people as of 2013.'; upper bound of the stated range used; checked 2026-09-27. Proto-Language StatusTreated as a language isolate. Proposed links to Zaparoan were reexamined by Fernando de Carvalho (2013) and found unsupported, though Kaufman (2007) grouped Omurano with Taushiro, but not Kandoshi, as Zaparo-Yaguan. 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Omurano Language
Wikimedia FoundationLead sentence
Omurano is a language isolate formerly spoken in Peru.
Geographical distribution section
It was spoken near the Urituyacu River (a tributary of the Marañón River); as of 1964, it was spoken on the Nucuray River.
Classification section, first sentence
Previous proposals have frequently linked Omurano with Zaparoan, though Fernando de Carvalho (2013) finds no evidence for this.
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