Native speakers 7,000 (2011) ISO 639-3 iar | ||
Language family unclassified (Trans–New Guinea?) | ||
Purari is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea.
Pronouns are 1sg nai, 2sg ni, 1pl enei. The first may reflect Trans–New Guinea *na, but otherwise there is little evidence to classify the language.
Name
Purari is also known as Koriki, Evorra, I'ai, Maipua, and Namau. "Namau" is a colonial term which means "deaf (lit.), inattentive, or stupid (Williams 1924: 4)." Today people of the Purari Delta find this term offensive. F.E. Williams reports that the "[a]n interpreter suggests that by some misunderstanding the name had its origin in the despair of an early missionary, who, finding the natives turned a deaf ear to his teaching, dubbed them all 'Namau'." (Williams 1924: 4). Koriki, I'ai, and Maipua refer to self-defining groups that make up the six groups that today compose the people who speak Purari. Along with the Baroi (formerly known as the Evorra, which was the name of a village site), Kaimari and the Vaimuru, these groups speak mutually intelligible dialects of Purari.