The Nicobarese languages or Nicobaric languages, form an isolated group of about half a dozen closely related
Austroasiatic languages
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are t ...
, spoken by most of the inhabitants of the
Nicobar Islands of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. They have a total of about 30,000 speakers (22,100 native). Most Nicobarese speakers speak the
Car language.
Paul Sidwell
Paul James Sidwell is an Australian linguist based in Canberra, Australia who has held research and lecturing positions at the Australian National University. Sidwell, who is also an expert and consultant in forensic linguistics, is most notab ...
(2015:179) considers the Nicobarese languages to subgroup with
Aslian.
The Nicobarese languages appear to be related to the
Shompen language
Shompen, or Shom Peng is a language or group of languages spoken on Great Nicobar Island in the Indian union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in the Indian Ocean, northwest of Sumatra, Indonesia.
Partially because the native peopl ...
of the
indigenous inhabitants of the interior of
Great Nicobar Island
Great Nicobar is the southernmost and largest of the Nicobar Islands of India, north of Sumatra.
History
The Nicobar Island has been well known to Indian mariners since the time of the seafaring Cholas https://www.britannica.com/place/Nicobar- ...
(Blench & Sidwell 2011), which is usually considered a separate branch of Austroasiatic. However,
Paul Sidwell
Paul James Sidwell is an Australian linguist based in Canberra, Australia who has held research and lecturing positions at the Australian National University. Sidwell, who is also an expert and consultant in forensic linguistics, is most notab ...
(2017)
classifies Shompen as a Southern Nicobaric language rather than as a separate branch of Austroasiatic.
The morphological similarities between Nicobarese and
Austronesian languages have been used as evidence for the
Austric hypothesis (Reid 1994).
[Reid, Lawrence A. 1994. Morphological evidence for Austric. Oceanic Linguistics 33(2):323-344.]
Languages
From north to south, the Nicobaric languages are:
*Car:
Car (Pū)
*Chaura–Teressa:
Chaura (Tutet/Sanënyö),
Teressa (Taih-Long/Lurö)
*
Central:
Nancowry (Nang-kauri/Mūöt),
Camorta,
Katchal (Tehnu)
*Southern:
Southern Nicobarese (Sambelong),
Shompen
The Shompen or Shom Pen are the indigenous people of the interior of Great Nicobar Island, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The Shompen are a designated Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Tribe.
...
(Shom Peng)
Classification
Paul Sidwell (2017) classifies the Nicobaric languages as follows.
[Sidwell, Paul. 2017.]
Proto-Nicobarese Phonology, Morphology, Syntax: work in progress
. International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics 7, Kiel, Sept 29-Oct 1, 2017.
*
Car
*Chaura–Teressa
**
Teressa,
Chaura
*Central-Southern
**Central:
Nancowry,
Camorta,
Katchall
**Southern:
Southern Nicobarese,
Shompen
The Shompen or Shom Pen are the indigenous people of the interior of Great Nicobar Island, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The Shompen are a designated Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Tribe.
...
See also
*
Shompen language
Shompen, or Shom Peng is a language or group of languages spoken on Great Nicobar Island in the Indian union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in the Indian Ocean, northwest of Sumatra, Indonesia.
Partially because the native peopl ...
*
List of Proto-Nicobarese reconstructions (Wiktionary)
References
Further reading
*Adams, K. L. (1989). ''Systems of numeral classification in the Mon–Khmer, Nicobarese and Aslian subfamilies of Austroasiatic''. Canberra, A.C.T., Australia: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University.
*Radhakrishnan, R. (1981). ''The Nancowry Word: Phonology, Affixal Morphology and Roots of a Nicobarese Language''. Current Inquiry Into Language and Linguistics 37. Linguistic Research Inc., P.O. Box 5677, Station 'L', Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6C 4G1.
*Sidwell, Paul. 2018
Proto-Nicobarese phonology In ''Papers from the Seventh International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics'', 101-131. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society Special Publication No. 3. University of Hawai’i Press.
External links
Nicobarese Languages Project(
Paul Sidwell
Paul James Sidwell is an Australian linguist based in Canberra, Australia who has held research and lecturing positions at the Australian National University. Sidwell, who is also an expert and consultant in forensic linguistics, is most notab ...
)
{{Austro-Asiatic languages
Languages of India