No. JOSEFSSON2025-001
Gizrra agurr
Papua New Guinea · Oriomo Plateau south of the Oriomo River, South Fly District, Western Province (Western Gizrra, Kululae) · Oceania · Sahul
Function not recorded
agurr
Source term: bullroarer: agurr
agurr: bullroarer (Western Gizrra). Cognate with Bine wagra; the Gizrra form is metathesized (Josefsson 2025, pp. 32, 101).
South of the Oriomo River, on the plateau where the Gizrra live, the bullroarer is called agurr. Across Kura Creek, the boundary with their Bine neighbours, it is wagra. The two words descend from one ancestral name, but somewhere in Gizrra's history its sounds were turned around. Gizrra's closest linguistic relative is not on the mainland at all: it is Meryam Mir, spoken on Mer and the other eastern islands of the Torres Strait. Around a thousand people speak Gizrra, in villages such as Kululae and Waidoro.
Particulars
- Object
- A bullroarer, called agurr; its form is not recorded.
- Function
- Not recorded.
Source
Michael Josefsson, Deep-time diversity: The Oriomo languages of Southern New Guinea (Honours thesis, Australian National University, 2025), pp. 5–8, 32, 101