Meriam Language - Dialects

Dialects

The language is currently dialectless. However, there was once a separate dialect spoken on Erub and Ugar islands, characterised in part by the retention of phonemic distinctions between 'ng', 'g', 'n' and 'r' where these have fallen together in two ways in Meriam Mir. The sound 'ng' in Modern Meriam has become 'n' at the beginning of words and 'g' within words; 'n' in general has become 'r' within words. The earliest records (early 19th century) of Meriam Mìr, which were actually in the Erub dialect, Erubim Mìr, included the phrase debe lang good taste/nice, where lang is identical to the Gizra lang of the same meaning. In present-day Meriam Mìr the phrase is debe lag.

• 'ng' > 'n' at the beginning of a word : Erub ngenkep, Mer nerkep heart (ngen/ner breath, kep body part, (cf. Kala Lagaw Ya ngœnakaapu, ngœna breath + kaapu body part)
• 'ng' > 'g' within and at the end of a word : Erub debe lang > Mer debe lag; Erub denger, Mer deger dugong (cf. Kala Lagaw Ya dhangal)
• Erub ngeng, Mer neg, Bine ngango laugh.
• 'n' > 'n' at the beginning of a word : Erub naiger > Mer naiger North-East
• 'n' > 'r' in the middle and at the end of a word : Erub ngenkep > Mer nerkep heart