Southern Nicobarese language
Language spoken on Southern Nicobar Islands
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Southern Nicobarese is a Nicobarese language, spoken on the Southern Nicobar Islands of Little Nicobar (Lamôngsĕ), Great Nicobar (Tökahāṅilā), and small neighboring islands, Kondul and Pulo Milo (Milo Island) each of which have own dialects.
NativetoIndia
RegionLittle Nicobar, Great Nicobar
Native speakers
(7,500 cited 2001 census)[1]Austroasiatic
-
Nicobarese
- Southern
- Southern Nicobarese
- Southern
| Southern Nicobarese | |
|---|---|
| Sambelong | |
| Native to | India |
| Region | Little Nicobar, Great Nicobar |
Native speakers | (7,500 cited 2001 census)[1] |
Austroasiatic
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nik |
| Glottolog | sout2689 |
| ELP | Southern Nicobarese |
Great Nicobarese and Little Nicobarese | |
  Location in the Bay of Bengal. | |
| Coordinates: 6.83°N 93.80°E | |
Distribution
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.
- Batadiya
- Chinge
- Ehengloy
- Kakaiyu
- Kashindon
- Kopenhaiyen
- Koye
- Pulo-babi
- Pulo-baha
- Pulo-kunyi
- Pulo-pucca
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
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
- Shompen language, also spoken on Great Nicobar