View source for Andamanese languages

{{Infobox language family
|name = Andamanese
|acceptance=geographic
|region = [[Andaman Islands]], India
|ethnicity = [[Andamanese peoples|Andamanese]]
|familycolor = Andamanese
|family = Two independent language families
|glotto = none
|child1 = [[Great Andamanese languages|Great Andamanese]]
|child2 = [[Ongan languages|Ongan]]
|child3 = ? [[Sentinelese language|Sentinelese]] (unattested)
|map = Schematic Map of Andamanese Languages & Tribes.png
|mapcaption  = Ethnolinguistic map of the precolonial Andaman Islands
}}

The '''Andamanese languages''' are a pair of [[language family|language families]] spoken by the [[Andamanese peoples]] of the [[Andaman Islands]] in the Indian Ocean. The two language families are [[Great Andamanese languages|Great Andamanese]] and [[Ongan languages|Ongan]], while the [[Sentinelese language]] is spoken by an [[Uncontacted peoples|uncontacted people]] and therefore at present [[Unclassified language|unclassifiable]].<ref name=Abbi>Abbi, Anvita (2008). "Is Great Andamanese genealogically and typologically distinct from Onge and Jarawa?" ''Language Sciences'', {{doi|10.1016/j.langsci.2008.02.002}}</ref><ref name="Blevins-2007">{{Citation |last=Blevins |first=Juliette |year=2007 |title=A Long Lost Sister of Proto-Austronesian? Proto-Ongan, Mother of Jarawa and Onge of the Andaman Islands
 |journal=Oceanic Linguistics |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=154–198 |url=http://email.eva.mpg.de/~blevins/pdf/webpub2007a.pdf |doi=10.1353/ol.2007.0015 |s2cid=143141296 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110111172242/http://email.eva.mpg.de/~blevins/pdf/webpub2007a.pdf |archive-date=2011-01-11 }}</ref>

== History ==
The indigenous Andamanese people have lived on the islands for thousands of years. Although the existence of the islands and their inhabitants was long known to maritime powers and traders of the South– and Southeast–Asia region, contact with these peoples was highly sporadic and very often hostile; as a result, almost nothing is recorded of them or their languages until the mid-18th century. By the late 18th century, when the British first established a colonial presence on the Andaman islands, there were an estimated 5,000 Great Andamanese living on [[Great Andaman]] and surrounding islands, comprising 10 distinct tribes with distinct but closely related languages. From the 1860s onwards, the  [[British Empire|British]] established a [[penal colony]] on the islands, which led to the subsequent arrival of mainland settlers and indentured labourers, mainly from the [[Indian subcontinent]]. This coincided with the massive population reduction of the Andamanese due to outside diseases, to a low of 19 individuals in 1961.

One of the first accounts in English of the languages was by the early phonetician [[Alexander John Ellis]], who presented to the Philological Society on the South Andamanese languages on his retirement.  This presentation was later adapted into a ''Report of Researches into the Language of the South Andaman Island''.<ref>Appendix in {{cite book |last=Man|first=Edward Horace |date=1885 |title=On the aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands |url=https://archive.org/details/b24764413 |location=London |publisher=Royal Anthropological Institute }}</ref>

By the beginning of the 20th century most of these populations were greatly reduced in numbers, and the various linguistic and tribal divisions among the Great Andamanese effectively ceased to exist, despite a census of the time still classifying the groups as separate.<ref>Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1922). ''The Andaman Islanders: A study in social anthropology.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</ref> Their linguistic diversity also suffered as the surviving populations intermingled with one another, and some also intermarried with [[Karen people|Karen (Burmese)]] and [[Demographics of India|Indian]] settlers.

By the latter part of the 20th century the majority of Great Andamanese languages had become extinct.

At the start of the 21st century only about 50 or so individuals of Great Andamanese descent remained, resettled to a single small island ([[Strait Island|Strait I.]]); about half of these speak what may be considered a modified version (or [[creole language|creole]]) of Great Andamanese, based mainly on [[Aka-Jeru language|Aka-Jeru]].<ref name=Abbi/> This modified version has been called "Present Great Andamanese" by some scholars,<ref name=Abbi06>Abbi, Anvita (2006). ''Endangered Languages of the Andaman Islands.'' Germany: Lincom GmbH.</ref><ref name=Burenh>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ling.lu.se/disseminations/pdf/45/Burenhult.pdf |title=Burenhult, Niclas (1996). "Deep linguistic prehistory with particular reference to Andamanese." ''Working Papers'' 45, 5–24. Lund University: Department of Linguistics |access-date=2006-04-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050425054740/http://www.ling.lu.se/disseminations/pdf/45/Burenhult.pdf |archive-date=2005-04-25 |url-status=dead }}</ref> but also may be referred to simply as "Jero" or "Great Andamanese". [[Hindi]] increasingly serves as their primary language, and is the only language for around half of them.<ref>Abbi, Anvita and Bidisha Som (2007). "Where Have All The Speakers Gone? A Sociolinguistic Study of The Great Andamanese", ''Indian Linguistics'' 68.3–4:325–343.</ref>

The Ongan languages survive mainly because of the greater isolation of the peoples who speak them. This isolation has been reinforced by an outright hostility towards outsiders and extreme reluctance to engage in contact with them by South Andamanese tribes, particularly the [[Sentinelese people|Sentinelese]] and [[Jarawa (Andaman Islands)|Jarawa]]. The Sentinelese have been so resistant that their language remains entirely unknown to outsiders.

==Grammar==

The Andamanese languages are [[agglutinative]] languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system.<ref name="Abbi06"/><ref name=Templ>Temple, Richard C. (1902). ''A Grammar of the Andamanese Languages, being Chapter IV of Part I of the Census Report on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands''. Superintendent's Printing Press: Port Blair.</ref>  They have a distinctive [[noun class]] system based largely on body parts, in which every [[noun]] and [[adjective]] may take a [[Prefix (linguistics)|prefix]] according to which body part it is associated with (on the basis of shape, or functional association).<ref name="Burenh"/> Thus, for instance, the "aka-" at the beginning of the Great Andamanese languages' names is a prefix for objects related to the [[tongue]].<ref name="Templ"/>  (See [[Great Andamanese languages]] for examples.) Terms for body parts are [[Inalienable possession|inalienably possessed]], requiring a [[possessive adjective]] [[Prefix (linguistics)|prefix]] to complete them, so one cannot say "head" alone, but only "my, or his, or your, etc. head".<ref name="Burenh"/>

The basic pronouns are almost identical throughout the Great Andamanese languages; Aka-Bea will serve as a representative example (pronouns given in their basic prefixal forms):
{| class=wikitable
| I, my
| ''d-''
| we, our
| ''m-''
|-
| thou, thy
| ''ŋ-''
| you, your
| ''ŋ-''
|-
| he, his, she, her, it, its
| ''a''
| they, their
| ''l-''
|}

The Ongan pronouns are rather different; Önge is cited here:
{| class=wikitable
| I, my
| ''m-''
| we, our
| ''et-, m-''
|-
| thou, thy
| ''ŋ-''
| you, your
| ''n-''
|-
| he, his, she, her, it, its
| ''g-''
| they, their
| ''ekw-, n-''
|}

Judging from the available sources, the Andamanese languages have only two [[cardinal number]]s: [[1 (number)|one]] and [[2 (number)|two]] and their entire numerical lexicon is one, two, one more, some more, and all.<ref name="Templ"/>{{Better source|date=July 2019}}

==Lexicon==

Abbi (2009)<ref name="Abbi2009">Abbi, Anvita (2008). [http://www.andamanese.net/Lg%20Sciences%20Vol%2031%20GA%20article.pdf Is Great Andamanese genealogically and typologically distinct from Onge and Jarawa?] ''Language Sciences'' 31(6):791-812. {{doi|10.1016/j.langsci.2008.02.002}}</ref> lists the following lexical items for [[Önge language|Onge]], [[Jarawa language (Andaman Islands)|Jarawa]], and [[Aka-Jeru language|Great Andamanese]], showing that [[Ongan languages|Ongan]] and [[Great Andamanese languages|Great Andamanese]] are distinct language families sharing few lexical similarities.

:{| class="wikitable sortable"
! English !! [[Önge language|Onge]] !! [[Jarawa language (Andaman Islands)|Jarawa]] !! [[Aka-Jeru language|Great Andamanese]]
|-
! boat
| ɖaŋɛ cɨ || (cagiya paɖa)-taŋ/daŋ || rowa
|-
! bow
| ɪja || aːw || ko
|-
! child
| ɨcɨʐɨ || ɨcɨʐə || ʈʰire
|-
! crocodile
| ʈɔjəgɨ || torogijəi || sare-ka-teo
|-
! crows
| wawa-le || waːraw || pʰaʈka
|-
! dog
| wəːme, uame || wɔm || caːw
|-
! goat
| ʈikʷabuli || tʰikʰwa-gopejajo || –
|-
! laugh
| ɨɲja || əniaː || kʰole
|-
! water
| ɨɲe || iːɲ || ino
|-
! 1SG (I)
| mi || mi || ʈʰu
|-
! 2SG (you)
| ɲi || ɲi || ɲ
|-
! forehead
| -ejale || -ejea || -beŋ
|-
! eye
| -ejebo || -ejebo || -ulu
|-
! ear
| -ekʷagɨ || -ikʰəwə || -boa
|-
! elbow
| -ito-ge || -itʰo-ha || -bala-tara ɖole
|-
! wrist
| -moɲa-ge || -eɲia || -ʈʰo
|-
! palm
| -obanaŋ-ge || -obaŋna || -koro
|-
! thumb
| -oboʈa-ge || -obotʰa || -kənap
|-
! thigh
| -ibo || -ibə || -buco
|-
! knee
| -ola-ge || -olak ~ -ola || -curok
|-
! sole
| -ubtəga-me || -ugɖaga || -moʈora-ɖole
|-
! neck
| -aŋgiʈo || -agiʈʰo || -loŋɔ
|}


Below are Proto-Ongan reconstructions from Blevins (2007)<ref name="Blevins-2007"/> compared with Great Andamanese lexical items from Abbi (2011).<ref>Abbi, Anvita. 2011. ''Dictionary of the Great Andamanese language''. Port Blair: Ratna Sagar.</ref>

:{| class="wikitable sortable"
! gloss !! Proto-Ongan !! Great Andamanese
|-
! head
| *-otab || ɛr-co
|-
! hair (of head)
| *-ode || ot-bec
|-
! eye
| *-ecebo < *eca-ipo || er-ulu
|-
! ear
| *-ikwag || er-buo
|-
! nose
| *-iɲjan-ipo || er-kɔʈʰo
|-
! tooth
| *-akwed || er-pʰile, ɸile
|-
! tongue
| *-adalaŋ || ɑ-tɑt
|-
! mouth
| *-alaŋ || er-pʰoŋ
|-
! hand
| *-ome || er-ʈoŋ
|-
! foot
| *uge || u-mɔʈo
|-
! breast
| *-akak || er-me-tɛi
|-
! meat, flesh
|  || e-tʰomo
|-
! blood
| *-aceŋ || e-tei
|-
! bone
| *daŋ || e-tɔe, o-ʈɔy
|-
! person
| *eŋ, *əŋ (< *en) || 
|-
! name
| *-atiba || liu
|-
! dog
| *wem(e) || cɑo
|-
! fish
| *napo || ʈɑjeo
|-
! louse
| *kuhi || kɔemo
|-
! tree
| *taŋ 'tree, log' || ɛʈ-ʈole 'wood'
|-
! leaf
| *bebe || tec
|-
! flower
| *okw || ʈɔl, ʈɔlo
|-
! water
| *iŋ || ino
|-
! fire
| *tuke || ɑʈ; luro
|-
! stone
| *uli || meo
|-
! earth
| *bela || buɑ
|-
! salt
|  || sɑre
|-
! road, path
| *icala || ɲɔrtɔ
|-
! eat
| *-ita || ɲɑ; iji
|-
! die
| *peca-me || em-pʰil
|}

==The languages and their classification==
[[File:Andamanese comparative distribution.png|right|440px|Precontact and current distribution of Anamanese languages]]
The Andaman languages fall into two clear families,<ref name=Manoh1>Manoharan, S. (1983). "Subgrouping Andamanese group of
languages." ''International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics''
XII(1): 82–95.</ref>
*'''[[Great Andamanese languages|Great Andamanese]]''': Spoken by the [[Great Andamanese]] people; [[Aka-Jeru language|Aka-Jeru]], had 36 speakers in 1997 who are bilingual in [[Andaman Creole Hindi]].
*'''[[Ongan languages|Ongan]]''': Two languages spoken by 300 people, mostly monolingual.

In addition, there is the unattested language
* [[Sentinelese language|Sentinelese]]; likely at least 50 speakers, and perhaps up towards 250 (the population of the [[Sentinelese people]] is unknown).

These have frequently been assumed to be related. However, the similarities between Great Andamanese and Ongan are so far mainly of a typological [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] nature, with little demonstrated common vocabulary. As a result, even long-range researchers such as [[Joseph Greenberg]] have expressed doubts as to the validity of Andamanese as a family.<ref name = Greenb>Greenberg, Joseph (1971). "The Indo-Pacific hypothesis." ''Current trends in linguistics vol. 8'', ed. by Thomas A. Sebeok, 807.71. The Hague: Mouton.</ref><ref>Andrew Pawley, 2008. [http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/papuanlanguages/attachments/20080319/6c5f7364/PawleyGreenbergsIndo-Pacific-0001.doc An assessment of Greenberg’s Indo-Pacific hypothesis] (draft)</ref>

Blevins (2007) summarizes,
{{quote|a relationship between Jarawa and Onge and languages of the Great Andaman group is not widely accepted. Radcliffe-Brown (1914:40) found only seven potential cognates between Onge and Bea/Jeru, and noted that the difference between Onge and the Great Andaman languages "is such that it would not be possible from consideration of the vocabulary alone to prove that they belonged to the same language stock." [...] Abbi (2006:93) is agnostic, stating that "current linguistic analysis does not, with any certainty, indicate any genetic relationship between Great Andamanese and the other two languages." The only positive evidence offered in support of this relationship is a listing of 17 word pairs as proposed cognates in Manoharan (1989:16667). There are several problems with Manoharan's proposal [such as semantic mismatches and failing to identify loans. ...] Given evidence that shows these languages have been in contact, and the scarcity of data available at present on Great Andaman languages, there remains no persuasive evidence of a family relationship between Jarawa-Onge and the Great Andaman languages. [...] Greenberg (1971:810) is unconvinced of the relation between Great Andaman and Onge-Jarawa, agreeing with Radcliffe-Brown (1914) that "there are very few vocabulary resemblances between this language [Onge] and those of Great Andaman and the only real point of contact is typological.  A few citations from Onge have been included in the general Indo-Pacific vocabulary, but both its special relationship to the languages of the rest of the Andamans and its assignment to Indo-Pacific must be considered highly provisional."}}

As alluded to in this quotation, Greenberg proposed that the Great Andamanese are related to western [[Papuan languages]] as members of a phylum he called [[Indo-Pacific languages|Indo-Pacific]],<ref name="Greenb"/> but this is not generally accepted by other linguists. [[Stephen Wurm]] states that the lexical similarities between Great Andamanese and the [[West Papuan languages|West Papuan]] and certain languages of [[Timor]] "are quite striking and amount to virtual formal identity […] in a number of instances", but considers this to be due to a linguistic [[substratum]] rather than a direct relationship.<ref>[http://www.papuaweb.org/dlib/bk/pl/C38/_toc.html Wurm, S.A. (1977: 929). ''New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study, Volume 1: Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene''. Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra.]</ref> Blevins (2007) proposes that the Ongan languages are related to [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]] in an [[Austronesian–Ongan languages|Austronesian–Ongan]] family, for which she has attempted to establish regular sound correspondences.<ref>{{Citation |last=Blevins |first=Juliette |year=2007 |title=A Long Lost Sister of Proto-Austronesian? Proto-Ongan, Mother of Jarawa and Onge of the Andaman Islands |journal=Oceanic Linguistics |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=154–198 |url=http://julietteblevins.ws.gc.cuny.edu/files/2016/10/Blevins2007a-Proto-Ongan.pdf |doi=10.1353/ol.2007.0015 |s2cid=143141296 }}</ref> The proposed connection between Austronesian and Ongan has not been supported by Austronesianists, and [[Robert Blust]] (2014) finds that Blevins' conclusions are not supported by her data: Of her first 25 reconstructions, none are reproducible using the comparative method, and Blust concludes that the grammatical comparison does not hold up. Blust, in addition, cites non-linguistic (such as cultural, archaeological, and biological) evidence against Blevins' hypothesis.<ref>Robert Blust (2014) "Some Recent Proposals Concerning the Classification of the Austronesian Languages", ''Oceanic Linguistics'' 53:2:300&ndash;391.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Kusunda language#Classification]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*Abbi, Anvita. 2006. ''Endangered Languages of the Andaman Islands''. LINCOM Studies in Asian Linguistics, 64. München: Lincom Europa. {{ISBN|3-89586-866-3}}
*{{cite journal |last=Blevins |first=Juliette |year=2007 |title=A Long Lost Sister of Proto-Austronesian? Proto-Ongan, Mother of Jarawa and Onge of the Andaman Islands |journal=Oceanic Linguistics |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=154–198 |doi=10.1353/ol.2007.0015|s2cid=143141296 }}
*Burenhult, Niclas. 1996. ''Deep linguistic prehistory with particular reference to Andamanese. '' Working Papers 45, 5–24. Lund University: Department of Linguistics.
*Man, E.H.
**''Dictionary of the South Andaman Language'', British India Press: Bombay 1923.
** On the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands. ''The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'', Vol. 12, 1883.
*Manoharan, S. 1997. "Pronominal Prefixes and Formative Affixes in Andamanese Language." [[Anvita Abbi]] (ed.). ''The Languages of Tribal and Indigenous Peoples of India. The Ethnic Space''. Delhi: Motilal Benarsidass.
*Portman, M.V. 1887. ''A Manual of the Andamanese Languages.'' London: W.H. Allen & Co.
*Temple, Richard C. ''A Grammar of the Andamanese Languages, being Chapter IV of Part I of the Census Report on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands'', Superintendent's Printing Press: [[Port Blair]] 1902.
*Zide, Norman Herbert & V. Pandya. 1989. "A Bibliographical Introduction to Andamanese Linguistics." ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 109: 639–51.

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040405014303/http://www.southasiabibliography.de/Bibliography/Andamanese/andamanese.html South Asia Bibliography – Andamanese]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20131020185236/http://www.andaman.org/ Andaman Association]
*[http://www.andamanese.net/ Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese] Anvita Abbi, [[Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi|Jawaharlal Nehru University]]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090712142731/http://erewhon.ticonuno.it/arch/rivi/popoli/andama1.htm The Andamanese Language Family (I) & (II)]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050425054740/http://www.ling.lu.se/disseminations/pdf/45/Burenhult.pdf Burenhult's Paper on Andamanese]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130530042537/http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/burenhult/buhult-prehist/rep-burenhult.htm#1 Another link to Burenhult on Andamanese]

{{Andamanese languages}}
{{Eurasian languages}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Andamanese Languages}}
[[Category:Andamanese languages| ]]
[[Category:Languages of India]]
[[Category:Proposed language families]]