The Nicobarese languages or Nicobaric languages, form an isolated group of about half a dozen closely related Austroasiatic languages, spoken by most of the inhabitants of the Nicobar Islands administered by the Indian Republic. They have a total of about 30,000 speakers (22,100 native). Most Nicobarese speakers speak the Car language. Paul Sidwell (2015:179) considers the Nicobarese languages to subgroup with Aslian.

The Nicobarese languages appear to be related to the Shompen language of the indigenous inhabitants of the interior of Great Nicobar Island (Blench & Sidwell 2011), which is usually considered a separate branch of Austroasiatic. However, Paul Sidwell (2017) Weber (2025) also noted typological similarities between Nicobarese and Austronesian that are absent in other Austroasiatic branches, and suggested that Nicobarese may have an Austronesian substrate.

In general, the Nicobarese languages display verb-initial word orders, and have elaborate paradigmatic agreement systems. They also have suffixing, which is uncommon in the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area.

  • Nicobaric
  • Car
  • Chaura–Teressa
  • Teressa, Chaura
  • Central-Southern
  • Central: Nancowry, Camorta, Katchall
  • Southern: Southern Nicobarese, Shompen

Sidwell (2022)

250px|thumb|right|Approximate distribution of the Nicobarese languages

Sidwell (2022), based on a computational phylogenetic lexical analysis, proposes a new classification which treats Car and Shompen as single language branches of North and South Nicobarese while placing other lects into Central Nicobarese.

  • Nicobarese
  • Northern
  • Car (Pū)
  • Central
  • Chawra–Teressa
  • Chawra (Sanënyö, Tətɛt)
  • Teressa–Bompoka (Luröö, Təihlɔŋ, Poatat)
  • South–Central
  • Nancowry–Little Nicobar
  • Nancowry (Mūöt), Camorta (Kinlaka), Katchall (Tehnyu), Trinkat (Laful)
  • Little Nicobarese (Lamôngsĕ, Kondul, Pulo Milo)
  • Great Nicobarese (Tökahāṅilāhngö)
  • Southern
  • Shompen (Kalay, Keyet)

See also

  • Shompen language
  • List of Proto-Nicobarese reconstructions (Wiktionary)

References

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.
  • 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.
  • Sidwell, Paul. 2018. Proto-Nicobarese phonology. In Papers from the Seventh International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics, 101-131. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society Special Publication No. 3. University of Hawai’i Press.
  • Nicobarese Languages Project (Paul Sidwell)