Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Nicobarese languages

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Ethnicity
  
Nicobarese people

Glottolog
  
nico1262

Geographic distribution
  
Nicobar Islands

Nicobarese languages

Linguistic classification
  
Austroasiatic Nicobarese

Subdivisions
  
Car Chaura–Teressa Central Southern

The Nicobarese or Nicobaric languages form an isolated group of half a dozen closely related Austroasiatic languages, spoken by the majority of the inhabitants of the Nicobar Islands of India. They have a total of about 30,000 speakers (22,100 native). The majority of Nicobarese speakers use the Car language.

They appear to be at best distantly related to the Shompen languages of the indigenous inhabitants of the interior of Great Nicobar Island.

The morphological similarities between Nicobarese and Austronesian languages have been used to help support the Austric hypothesis.

From north to south:

  • Car
  • Chaura–Teressa: Chaura (Sanenya), Teressa (Bompoka dialect)
  • Central Nicobarese languages: Nancowry, Camorta, Katchal
  • Southern Nicobarese or 'Sambelong'

    • References

    Nicobarese languages Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA