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.
| Southern Nicobarese | |
|---|---|
| Sambelong | |
| Native to | India |
| Region | Little Nicobar, Great Nicobar |
Native speakers | 7,500 (2001 census)[1] |
Austroasiatic
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nik |
| Glottolog | sout2689 |
| ELP | Southern Nicobarese |
  Southern Nicobarese Location in the Bay of Bengal. | |
| Coordinates: 6°50′N 93°48′E / 6.83°N 93.80°E | |
Distribution
editParmanand 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
editPaul 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- Shompen language, also spoken on Great Nicobar
References
edit- ^ Southern Nicobarese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Lal, Parmanand. 1977. Great Nicobar Island: study in human ecology. Calcutta: Anthropological Survey of India, Govt. of India.
- ^ Sidwell, Paul. 2017. "Proto-Nicobarese Phonology, Morphology, Syntax: work in progress". International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics 7, Kiel, Sept 29-Oct 1, 2017.