Southern Nicobarese language

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Southern Nicobarese
Sambelong
Native toIndia
RegionLittle Nicobar, Great Nicobar
Native speakers
7,500 (2001 census)[1]
Austroasiatic
Dialects
  • Great Nicobarese
  • Little Nicobarese
Language codes
ISO 639-3nik
Glottologsout2689
Approximate location where Southern Nicobarese is spoken
Approximate location where Southern Nicobarese is spoken
Southern Nicobarese
Location in the Bay of Bengal.
Coordinates: 6°50′N 93°48′E / 6.83°N 93.80°E / 6.83; 93.80

Southern Nicobarese is a Nicobarese language, spoken on the Southern Nicobar Islands of Little Nicobar (Ong), Great Nicobar (Lo'ong), and a couple small neighboring islands, Kondul (Lamongshe) and Pulo Milo (Milo Island). Each is said to have its own dialect.

Distribution[edit]

Parmanand Lal (1977:23)[2] reported 11 Nicobarese villages with 192 people in all, located mostly along the western coast of Great Nicobar Island. Pulo-babi village was the site of Lal's extensive ethnographic study.

  • Pulo-kunyi
  • Kopenhaiyen
  • Kashindon
  • Koye
  • Pulo-babi
  • Batadiya
  • Kakaiyu
  • Pulo-pucca
  • Ehengloy
  • Pulo-baha
  • Chinge

Lal (1977:104) also reported the presence of several Shompen villages in the interior of Great Nicobar Island.

  • Dakade (10 km northeast of Pulo-babi, a Nicobarese village; 15 persons and 4 huts)
  • Puithey (16 km southeast of Pulo-babi)
  • Tataiya (inhabited by the Dogmar River Shompen group, who had moved from Tataiya to Pulo-kunyi between 1960 and 1977)

Vocabulary[edit]

Paul Sidwell (2017)[3] published in ICAAL 2017 conference on Nicobarese languages.

Word Southern Nicobarese proto-Nicobarese
hot tait *taɲ
four fôat *foan
child kōˑan *kuːn
lip paṅ-nōˑin *manuːɲ
dog âm *ʔam
night hatòm *hatəːm
male (otāˑha) *koːɲ
ear nâng *naŋ
one heg *hiaŋ
belly wīˑang *ʔac
sun hēg -
sweet shai(t) -

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Southern Nicobarese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Lal, Parmanand. 1977. Great Nicobar Island: study in human ecology. Calcutta: Anthropological Survey of India, Govt. of India.
  3. Sidwell, Paul. 2017. "Proto-Nicobarese Phonology, Morphology, Syntax: work in progress". International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics 7, Kiel, Sept 29-Oct 1, 2017.