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"Nicobarese" redirects here. For the indigenous peoples, see Nicobar Islands
Nicobar Islands

The Nicobar Islands are an island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean, and are part of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India....
.






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"Nicobarese" redirects here. For the indigenous peoples, see Nicobar Islands
Nicobar Islands

The Nicobar Islands are an island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean, and are part of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India....
.


The Nicobarese languages form an isolated group of six closely-related Mon-Khmer languages
Mon-Khmer languages

The Mon-Khmer languages are the Autochthonous language language family of Southeast Asia. Together with the Munda languages of India, they are one of the two traditional primary branches of the Austroasiatic languages family....
, spoken by the majority of the inhabitants of the Nicobar Islands
Nicobar Islands

The Nicobar Islands are an island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean, and are part of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India....
 of India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
. They have a total of about 30,000 speakers (22,100 native). The majority of Nicobarese speakers use the Car language
Car language

Car is the most widely spoken of the Nicobarese languages spoken in the Nicobar Islands of India.Although related distantly to Vietnamese language and Khmer language, it is typologically much more akin to nearly Austronesian languages such as Nias language and Acehnese language, with which it forms a linguistic area....
.

They appear to be unrelated to the Shompen languages
Shompen languages

The Shompen languages are spoken on Great Nicobar Island in the Indian union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean south of Burma....
 of the indigenous inhabitants
Indigenous peoples

File:Kaiapos.jpegThe term indigenous peoples or autochthonous peoples can be used to describe any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside immigrants which have populated the region and which are greater in number....
 of the interior of Great Nicobar
Great Nicobar

Great Nicobar is the largest of the Nicobar Islands of India, north of Sumatra. Indira Point, its southernmost tip, is also the extreme points of India....
 island.

The morphological similarities between Nicobarese and Austronesian languages
Austronesian languages

The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia....
 have been used to help support the Austric hypothesis.

A monograph titled "A study on the Nicobarese Language" authored by A R Das, is available from the Anthropological Survey of India offices across India.

Nicobarese Languages

  • Chaura
    Chaura language

    Chaura is one of the Nicobarese languages spoken on the Nicobar Islands.It had approximately 2,000 speakers in the year 2000....
  • Teressa
  • Bompoka
  • Southern Nicobarese (Dialects: Condul, Great Nicobar, Little Nicobar, Milo, Sambelong, Tafwap)
  • Central Nicobarese (Dialects: Camorta, Katchal, Nancowry, Trinkut)
  • Car
    Car language

    Car is the most widely spoken of the Nicobarese languages spoken in the Nicobar Islands of India.Although related distantly to Vietnamese language and Khmer language, it is typologically much more akin to nearly Austronesian languages such as Nias language and Acehnese language, with which it forms a linguistic area....


Further reading

  • Adams, K. L. (1989). Systems of numeral classification in the Mon-Khmer, Nicobarese and Aslian subfamilies of Austroasiatic. Canberra, A.C.T., Australia: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. ISBN 0858833735
  • Radhakrishnan, R. (1981). The Nancowry Word: Phonology, Affixal Morphology and Roots of a Nicobarese Language. Current Inquiry Into Language and Linguistics 37. Linguistic Research Inc., P.O. Box 5677, Station 'L', Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6C 4G1. ISBN 0-88783-041-2


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