Meriam
[aka Miriam, Meryam Mir, Miriam-Mir]Classification: Eastern Trans-Fly
·endangered
Classification: Eastern Trans-Fly
·endangered
Information from: “The World Atlas of Language Structures” . Bernard Comrie and David Gil and Martin Haspelmath and Matthew S. Dryer · Oxford University Press
Information from: “Making a Meriam Mir Dictionary” (19-30) . Patrick McConvell and Ron Day and Paul Black (1983) , Peter Austin · Pacific Linguistics
"As progress was made with the basic dictionary work, other projects developed from it. Some of the results of these projects will be used in educational and literacy work on Murray Island. Although the Meriam Mir language is currently not used in school on the Island, there is a move amongst the Islanders to introduce it."
"There is a literary tradition in Meriam Mir of a small number of books... They use a near-phonemic orthography similar t that used by missionaries for Pacific Island Languages... The same orthography, with only minor changes was used in writing dictionary entries. It consists of: bilabial stops p, b; alveolar stops t, d; velar stops k, g; alveolar fricatives s, z; bilabial nasal m; alveolar nasal n; alveolar lateral l; alveolar tap r and a labio-velar semi-vowel w ('i' is used to indicate the palatal semi-vowel). There are five vowels: i, u, e, o a. Stress (high tone) is indicated by an acute accent over the vowel or by an apostrophe preceding the stressed syllable."