igardare! Keriba uzer urker a keriba imut urker. Keep carrying it! Our paddles and our poling poles are still strong. The earliest records (early 19th century) of Meriam Mìr included the phrase debelang good taste/nice, in present-day Meriam Mìr debe lag. This shows that the 'ng' > 'n'/'g' change is of fairly recent date; lang, now lag, is identical to the Gizrra lang of the same meaning. Phonology Vowels The sounds represented by and are allophonic. appears mainly in syllables before the stress accent and optionally in open unstressed syllables otherwise. appears in stressed syllables and in unstressed closed syllables. For some speakers the following pairs exhibit variation, and perhaps have unidentified allophonic variation: and (mainly Erub/Ulag), and (mainly Mer), and , and , and and . Older speakers appear to keep the vowels more distinct. Consonants Stress Stress is contrastive in Meriam and can occur on the first or second syllable. Examples include tábo 'snake', tabó 'neck'. Sign language The Torres Strait Islanders have signed forms of their languages, though it is not clear from records that they are particularly well-developed compared to other Australian Aboriginal sign languages. See also Torres Strait Island languages References Bibliography External links Opolera Wetpur Anglican Holy Communion service in Meriam Kala Lagaw Ya & Miriam Mir (Torres Strait Islands) Community Language Journey Digital Story, State Library of Queensland Eastern Trans-Fly languages Torres Strait Islands culture Languages of Australia