Kanikkaran, also known as Kani, 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]
| Kanikkaran | |
|---|---|
| கணிக்காரன்/കണ്ണിക്കാരൻ | |
| Native to | India |
| Region | Tamil Nadu, Kanyakumari |
| Ethnicity | Kanikkaran |
Native speakers | 19,000 (2007)[1] |
Dravidian
| |
Early forms | |
| Tamil script, Malayalam script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kev |
| Glottolog | kani1275 |
Phonology
editVowels
editKanikkaran has 5 vowels, /a, e, i, o, u/. It demonstrates contrastive vowel length.[2]
Consonants
edit| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n̪ | n | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ | |
| Stop | voiceless | p | t̪ | ʈ | c | k | |
| voiced | b | d̪ | |||||
| 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/. añcu (5) becomes eñcu, ari (rice) becomes ei, arivāḷu (sickle) becomes erivāḷu, 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| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | ñān | ñāṇkaḷu |
| 2nd | īl | nīṇkaḷu |
| 3rd | avanu/avaḷu | avaru |
The language cannot use personal terminations, similar to Old Malayalam. Example: pōvā (go or going or let's go) and vārā (will come, or "see you").[2]
References
edit- ^ a b Kanikkaran at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ a b c d Shyam, S.K. (12 December 2017). "Aspects of Life and Language of Kanikkar Tribal Community of Kerala –A Study". Language in India.
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