| Kanikkaran | |
|---|---|
| கணிக்காரன்/കണ്ണിക്കാരൻ | |
| Native to | India |
| Region | Tamil Nadu, Kanyakumari |
| Ethnicity | Kanikkaran |
Native speakers | 19,000 (2007)[1] |
Dravidian
| |
| Tamil script, Malayalam script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kev |
| Glottolog | kani1275 |
Kanikkaran is a Dravidian language spoken by about 19,000 Kanikkar tribals in southern India.[1] They dwell in forests and hills of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts of Kerala, and Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu. It is called malambhāsha, or "hill-language."[2]
Phonology[edit | edit source]
Vowels[edit | edit source]
Kanikkaran has 5 vowels, /a, e, i, o, u/. It demonstrates contrastive vowel length.[2]
Consonants[edit | edit source]
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | p | t̪ | ʈ | c | k | ||
| voiced | b | d̪ | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n̪ | n | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Approximant | ʋ | l | ɭ | j | ||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
| Flap | ɾ | |||||||
They use the phoneme /l̩/ occasionally.
Kanikkaran has transformed words in Malayalam starting with /a/ into /e/. aɳcu (5) becomes eɳcu, ari (rice) becomes ei, arivāɭu (sickle) becomes erivāɭu, aluku (split reed) becomes elakku. It also adds a suffix -in or -n after all noun stems, except for nouns ending with -n in accusative.[2]
Grammar[edit | edit source]
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | ɲān | ɲāɳkaɭu |
| 2nd | īl | nīɳkaɭu |
| 3rd | avanu/avaɭu | avaru |
The language cannot use personal terminations, similar to Old Malayalam. Example: pōvā (will not go) and vārā (will not come).[2]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kanikkaran at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Shyam, S.K. (12 December 2017). "Aspects of Life and Language of Kanikkar Tribal Community of Kerala –A Study". Language in India.
Languages spoken in Kerala | ||
|---|---|---|
| Non-tribal languages |  | |
| Tribal languages | ||
| Other languages and creoles | ||