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Meriam
Eastern Torres Strait
Meriam Mir
Region	Murray Island, Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia
Ethnicity	Meriam
Native speakers	217 (2016 census)
Language family	Trans-Fly Eastern Trans-Fly Meriam
Signed forms	Eastern Torres Strait Islander Sign Language
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ulk
Glottolog	meri1244
AIATSIS	Y3
ELP	Meriam
Linguasphere	20-OD(A-a)
Meriam Mir is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)
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Meriam (Meriam Mir: Meriam Mìr; also Miriam, Meryam, Mer, Mir, Miriam-Mir, etc. and Eastern, Isten, Esten and Able Able) or the Eastern Torres Strait language is the language of the people of the small islands of Mer (Murray Island), Waier and Dauar, Erub (Darnley Island), and Ugar (Stephens Island) in the eastern Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia. In the Western Torres Strait language, Kalaw Lagaw Ya, it is called Mœyam or Mœyamau Ya. It is the only Papuan language in Australian territory.

Classification

Meriam was classified in the Eastern Trans-Fly family of the Trans–New Guinea Phylum by Stephen Wurm, who however felt that these have retained remnants of pre-Trans–New Guinea languages; this is followed by Ethnologue (2005). In 2005 Malcolm Ross concluded that the Eastern Trans-Fly languages were not part of the Trans–New Guinea phylum. R. M. W. Dixon (2002) regards claims of a relationship between the Fly River languages and Meriam as unproven, though what he bases his claim on is not clear, as Meriam Mir has a high cognacy rate with its sister languages, and a certain amount of mutual intelligibility is claimed by Meriam speakers. Mitchell finds that Meriam Mìr has 78% cognates with its sister Trans-Fly Papuan languages, the remaining vocabulary being mainly of Australian origin. Such Trans-Fly cognates include personal pronouns, and verbal and nominal morphology.

Status

In the 2016 Australian census, 217 speakers were recorded, up slightly on the previous (2011) census, which recorded 186. It is considered an endangered language by UNESCO.

There is a push to preserve the language in North Queensland. A group of Torres Strait Islander people in Mackay region, where there are only four fluent speakers left, are practising and teaching traditional hymns sung in Meriam Mir in an effort to help more people to learn the language and pass it down. It is hoped that a program to teach the hymns will be introduced into schools.

Meriam Mìr and its neighbours

Meriam has around 40 percent of its vocabulary in common with its unrelated Western Torres Strait neighbour Kala Lagaw Ya, which is an Australian language. The shared words cover a wide range of semantic domains (body parts, kin, human classification, language, mythology, ceremony, artefacts, topography, natural elements, marine life, qualities, locations, directions and time), though not verbs. This latter strengthens arguments about genetic diversity, however there is still much to suggest mutual influence. The common vocabulary range from "exact cognates" to words that appear related, but have undergone semantic changes, as in the following selected from a list of 250 items (Mitchell 1995) (where exact "cognates" number 62 (24.8%), partial "cognates" 26 (10%) and "cognates" with semantic differentiation number 34 (13.7%), ):

There are also various items of semantic relationship, but not formal relationship, such as WCL puuy(i), MM lu "plant, tree; magic".

Mitchell and Piper (unpublished research notes) used the Holman et al. 40-word list below, which shows 9 (22.5%) exact items, 5 (12.5%) partial, and 3 (7.5%) semantically related words. However, this list was designed for use with Euro-Asian languages, and is perhaps somewhat inappropriate; for example, no horned animals exist, neither language has a verb ‘come’, and Holman et al. assume one form for 'we'; WCL has 4, and MM has 2.

PCD Proto Central-District Papuan Austronesian, PETrf Proto East Trans Fly; POC Proto Oceanic Austronesian; PP Proto Paman; PSEPap Proto South-East Papuan Austronesian

Recent loans

The main source of loan words to the language since the mid 1800s has been Yumplatòk (Torres Strait Creole) and English. There are also some minor loans from Lifu/Drehu, Polynesian (in particular Samoan and to a lesser extent Rotuman), Indonesian, Philippine, Japanese, and European origin. Many such outsiders were recruited – or in some rare cases black-birded – in the 19th century for pearl diving and other marine work, while others (from Lifu and Samoa) were missionaries with the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Dialects

The language is currently dialectless. However, there was once a separate dialect spoken on Erub and Ugar islands, characterised in part by the retention of phonemic distinctions between 'ng', 'g', 'n' and 'r' where these have fallen together in two ways in Meriam Mir. The sound 'ng' in Modern Meriam has become 'n' at the beginning of words and 'g' within words; 'n' in many cases has become 'r' within words. Examples are remembered in one important Erub folktale (Lawrie 1970:283–284):

Erub : Aka nade ki andinane? Ge au?

Mer  : Aka nade ki ardirare? Ge au?

Where will we put it? There?

Erub : Mena inggandane/ingandane! Keniba uzen unken a keniba imut unken.

Mer  : Mena igardare! Keriba uzer urker a keriba imut urker.

Keep carrying it! Our paddles and our poling poles are still strong.

The earliest records (early 19th century) of Meriam Mìr included the phrase debelang good taste/nice, in present-day Meriam Mìr debe lag. This shows that the 'ng' > 'n'/'g' change is of fairly recent date; lang, now lag, is identical to the Gizrra lang of the same meaning.

Phonology

Vowels

The sounds represented by and are allophonic. appears mainly in syllables before the stress accent and optionally in open unstressed syllables otherwise. appears in stressed syllables and in unstressed closed syllables.

For some speakers the following pairs exhibit variation, and perhaps have unidentified allophonic variation: , and (mainly Erub/Ulag), and (mainly Mer), and , and , and and . Older speakers appear to keep the vowels more distinct.

Consonants

/ɾ/ is heard as when occurring before or after consonants.

Stress

Stress is contrastive in Meriam and can occur on the first or second syllable. Examples include tábo 'snake', tabó 'neck'.

Sign language

The Torres Strait Islanders have signed forms of their languages, though it is not clear from records that they are particularly well-developed compared to other Australian Aboriginal sign languages.

See also

• Torres Strait Island languages

References

1. ^ "Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (SA2+)". stat.data.abs.gov.au. ABS. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
2. ^ Y3 Meriam at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
3. ""2021 Census - Cultural Diversity, 2021, TableBuilder"". Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
4. ^ Mitchell 2015.
5. ^ Macqueen, Cristy-Lee (21 December 2020). "Torres Strait Islander language Meriam Mir preserved through Christmas hymn recordings". ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 24 December 2020.
6. Haddon, Alfred C. (1907). The gesture language of the Eastern Islanders, in "Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits." Cambridge, England: The University Press, v.3.
7. Kendon, A. (1988) Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Bibliography

• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Mitchell, Rod (April 2015), "Ngalmun Lagaw Yangukudu: The Language of our Homeland in Goemulgaw Lagal: Cultural and Natural Histories of the Island of Mabuyag, Torres Strait", Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Culture, 8 (1): 323–446, ISSN 1440-4788
• Passi, Gamalai Ken; Piper, Nick (1994). "Meryam Mir". In Nick Thieberger; William McGregor (eds.). Macquarie Aboriginal Words. Macquarie Library. pp. 320–351.
• Piper, N. (1989). A sketch grammar of Meryam Mer. MA thesis. Australian National University.
• Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66.
• Lawrie, Margaret (1970). Myths and Legends of Torres Strait. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press.

External links

• Greenhill, Simon J. "Meriam". Pronoun Paradigms Database.
• Opolera Wetpur Anglican Holy Communion service in Meriam
• Kala Lagaw Ya & Miriam Mir (Torres Strait Islands) Community Language Journey Digital Story, State Library of Queensland. Part of Spoken: Celebrating Queensland Languages Digital Stories Collection

v t e List of Torres Strait topics
Torres Strait Islands, islets, and cays	Bellevue group Aipus Cap Kamutnab Keatinge Mabuiag Pulu Subur Warakuikul Talab Widul Bourke group Aukane Aureed Kabbikane Layoak Mimi Roberts Yam Duncan group Kanig Maitak Meth Inner group Port Lihou Yeta Adolphus Channel group Albany Bush Eborac Ida Middle Brother Talbot group Aubussi Boigu Moimi The Three Sisters group Bet Poll Sue Yorke group Keats Marsden Rennel Smith Ungrouped Allison Anchor Arden Badu Barn Barney Bond Booby Bramble Browne Campbell Canoe Castle Coconut Crab Dalrymple Darnley Dauan Dayman Deliverance Dove Dugong Dumaralug East East Strait Entrance Farewell Flat Friday Gabba Getullai Goods Great Woody Green Halfway Hammond Hawkesbury High Horn Kaumag Kerr Lacey Little Adolphus Little Woody Lowry Mai Meddler Moa Morilug Mouinndo Mount Adolphus Mount Ernest Murangi Murray Nepean Nicklin North North Possession North West Obelisk Packe Passage Pearce Phipps Portlock Prince of Wales Quoin Red Red Wallis Roko Saddle Saibai Salter Sassie Spencer Stephens Suarji Thursday Tobin Travers Tree Trochus Tudu Tukupai Turnagain Turtle Head Turtle Turu Twin Underdown Wednesday West Whale Woody Wallis York Yorke Zagai
People, culture, communities and languages	Notable Torres Strait Islanders Christine Anu Seaman Dan Aaron Fa'aoso Josh Hoffman Nathan Jawai Ellen Jose Robert Lui Eddie Mabo Rachael Maza Patty Mills Rita Mills Mills Sisters Danny Morseu Tanu Nona Albert Proud Wendell Sailor Sam Thaiday Brent Webb Jesse Williams Culture Indigenous music of Australia Mabo (film) Taba Naba Communities Bamaga Kaurareg Mabuiag Meriam (people) Seisia Languages Bine Eastern Trans-Fly Gizrra Kalaw Lagaw Ya Meriam Torres Strait Creole Torres Strait English Wipi
Governance and legal matters	Governance Shire of Torres Torres Strait Islander Flag Torres Strait Island Region Torres Strait Regional Authority Legal cases and principles Akiba v Commonwealth Mabo v Queensland No 1 No 2 Terra nullius
Buildings and structures	Boigu Island Airport Booby Island Light Coconut Island Airport Darnley Island Airport Eborac Island Light Goods Island Light Kubin Airport Murray Island Airport Saibai Island Airport Warraber Island Airport Wyborn Reef Light Yam Island Airport Yorke Island Airport
Other	Adolphus Channel Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Birds of Boigu, Saibai and Dauan Islands Endeavour Strait Alfred Cort Haddon Margaret Lawrie Sea Swift Warul Kawa Indigenous Protected Area
Category Commons See also: List of Torres Strait Islands

• Eastern Trans-Fly languages
• Culture of the Torres Strait Islands
• Languages of Australia