| Also Known As: Mir,Miriam,Miriam-mir,Mer,East Torres
Description:
Meriam (in the language itself Meriam Mìr; also Miriam, Meryam, Mer, Mir, Miriam-Mir, etc. and Eastern, Isten, Esten and The Eastern Torres Strait Language, Able Able) is the language of Meriam people of Mer (Murray Island), Waier and Dauar, Erub (Darnley Island) and Ugar (Stephens Island) in the Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia.
Although Meriam is located in Australian territory, it is classified as a Papuan language, not an Australian language. It has, however, around 25 percent common vocabulary with its Torres Strait Island neighbour Kala Lagaw Ya, which is an Australian language. There are some very minor Rotuman language from the substantial community of Rotuman people as well as other Melanesian, Polynesian, Indonesian, Japanese and other influences in the form of vocabulary. Many such Pacific Islanders were recruited - or in some cases black-birded - in the 19th century for pearl diving, and other marine work.
Meriam was placed in the Eastern Trans-Fly family of Trans–New Guinea by Stephen Wurm, who however felt that these have retained remnants of pre-TransNG languages, and this is followed by Ethnologue (2005). In 2005 Malcolm Ross concluded that the Eastern Trans-Fly..... full article at Wikipedia |