Southern Nicobarese language

Last updated
Southern Nicobarese
Sambelong
Native to India
Region Little Nicobar, Great Nicobar
Native speakers
7,500 (2001 census) [1]
Austroasiatic
Dialects
  • Great Nicobarese
  • Little Nicobarese
Language codes
ISO 639-3 nik
Glottolog sout2689
ELP Southern Nicobarese
Bay of Bengal location map simple.svg
Red pog.svg
Southern Nicobarese
Location in the Bay of Bengal.
Coordinates: 6°50′N93°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 small neighboring islands, Kondul (Lamongshe) and Pulo Milo (Milo Island) each of which have own dialects.

Contents

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.

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

Vocabulary

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

WordSouthern Nicobareseproto-Nicobarese
hottait*taɲ
fourfôat*foan
childkōˑan*kuːn
lippaṅ-nōˑin*manuːɲ
dogâm*ʔam
nighthatòm*hatəːm
male(otāˑha)*koːɲ
earnâng*naŋ
oneheg*hiaŋ
bellywīˑang*ʔac
sunhēg-
sweetshai(t)-

See also

References

  1. Southern Nicobarese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  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.