Historical information: Omurano is a language isolate formerly spoken in the headwaters of the Urituyacu River, a left-bank tributary of the Marañón River in the Loreto Region of northeast Peru. The materials that constitute this collection were produced by Zachary O'Hagan and rememberers of Omurano during two field trips, one an exploratory trip in 2011 to Nueva Alianza, the community at the mouth of the Urituyacu River, the other a lengthier trip in 2013 to several communities on the Urituyacu proper (Cafetal, Juan Velasco, Progreso I, Caimituyo, Triunfo, Lupunayo, San Antonio de Banal, San Luis, Guineal, and 8 de Octubre). The goal was to locate as many individuals as possible with some knowledge -- lexical, grammatical, historical -- of the Omurano language and/or people. The 2013 field trip was conducted in the company of Fathers Miguel Ángel Cadenas and Manuel Berjón, then priests at the parish of Santa Rita de Casia in Santa Rita de Castilla (Marañón River), and Sisters Nancy Roca and Eli Quiroz. Omurano data is restricted to a few dozen lexical items and basic phrases, and is significantly interspersed with Urarina language data, a neighboring isolate that is now the dominant language of daily life in the Urituyacu basin, and at times it is difficult to decipher what is Omurano and what is Urarina. All audio was recorded on an H4N Zoom digital recorder with an Audio-Technica 803B lavalier microphone. Funding for this research came from an Oswalt Endangered Language Grant administered by the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Scope and content: Audio recordings, scanned field notes, and photographs that derive from interviews and elicitation sessions concerning the Omurano language the regional history of the Urituyacu river basin
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Omurano Field Materials, SCL 2014-14, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X29K488M
Historical information: Urarina and Omurano are language isolates of the Loreto Region of northeast Peru. As of 2016, Urarina speakers number a few thousand, and the language is the dominant language of daily life in every community in which it is spoken. In contrast, only a handful of lexical items and songs are remembered of Omurano. Urarinas historically were concentrated on the Chambira River, a left-bank tributary of the Marañón; Omuranos inhabited the Urituyacu River, another left-bank tributary to the west. Since at least the late 19th century, Urarinas have begun to settle in significant numbers on the Urituyacu. The songs that comprise this collection were collected in June 2013 during a trip aimed at searching for speakers of Omurano. Zachary O'Hagan traveled in the company of Fathers Miguel Ángel Cadenas and Manuel Berjón, then priests of the parish of Santa Rita de Casia in Santa Rita de Castilla (Marañón River), and Sisters Nancy Roca and Eli Quiroz, resident in the same parish. Songs recorded on June 14 and 16 were recorded in the homes of the singers listed; songs recorded on June 17 were recorded in the context of a community-wide workshop. All songs were recorded on an H4N Zoom digital recorder with an Audio-Technica 803B lavalier microphone. Funding for this research came from an Oswalt Endangered Language Grant administered by the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Scope and content: Twelve songs, some with multiple versions, in Urarina and Omurano, from five singers
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Songs from the Urituyacu River, SCL 2016-05, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2GH9FZD
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Drinking song, 2016-05.011, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2QZ27ZX
Description: Consultant demonstrates his knowledge of Omurano to a fellow Urarina-speaker, with frequent code-switching between the two languages and Spanish; recording made in community center during a two-day long workshop for the Urarina-speaking population of the downriver Urituyacu communities organized by the parish of Santa Rita de Casia
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Exemplification of Omurano phrases in dialogue, 2014-14.006, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/23692
Description: High-quality scans of wwo maps of Urituyacu toponyms and hydronyms in Spanish and Urarina, drawn by participants in two-day long workshop for the Urarina-speaking population of the downriver Urituyacu communities organized by the parish of Santa Rita de Casia
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Maps, 2014-14.012, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/23699
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Song, 2016-05.009, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X20G3H4H
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Song, 2016-05.003, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2RX992Q
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Song, 2016-05.012, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2M906N7
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Song, 2016-05.002, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2WQ01SK
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Song, 2016-05.004, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2N58JCR
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Song, 2016-05.005, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2HH6H2R
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Song, 2016-05.007, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X28050M0
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Song, 2016-05.008, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X24747VT
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Song, 2016-05.006, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2CR5RCG
We acknowledge with respect the Ohlone people on whose traditional, ancestral, and unceded land we work and whose historical relationships with that land continue to this day.