A short grammar of Urama

Abstract

Urama (ISO: 639-3 kiw) is a language spoken primarily on Urama Island in Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in the Gulf Province, in the vicinity of Deception Bay, in the Era River Delta. Urama is part of the Kiwai language family, which is distributed along the south coast of Papua New Guinea. The Kiwai family in turn belongs to the larger Trans New Guinea stock.1 Within the Kiwai family, Urama belongs to the North-Eastern group, along with Arigibi, Gibaio, and Kope (also referred to as Gope) (Wurm 1973). The name ‘Urama’ is used to refer to the language, the ethnic group, and the island. A native Urama individual is termed Urama mere ‘Urama person’. Urama Island is in the Kikori district. Preliminary numbers for the 2011 census indicate the entire district has a population of 41,232. Official numbers of inhabitants on Urama Island are more difficult to obtain; however, Wurm (1971:139) has estimated the population of Urama speakers at around 1500. Foley (1986:233) estimated the population of North-Eastern Kiwai (presumably including Gibaio, Kope, and Urama, but not Arigibi, which Wurm & Hattori 1981 classify as a separate language²) at 3700 speakers, as has Wurm & Hattori (1981), and according to Ethnologue (Lewis et al. 2014, based on Foley’s 2011 estimates), there are 6000 speakers of North-East Kiwai (which includes Gibaio and Urama-Kope3 together). The adjacent areas speak various Kiwaian languages, and there is some mutual intelligibility between them. As Tok Pisin is one of the lingue franche of Papua New Guinea and is an official language, it is often the language of communication between those from other areas.