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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1907.
C.-Philological Value. The Nicobarese speak one language, whose affinities are with the Indo-Chinese Languages, as represented nowadays by the Mon Language of Pegu and Annam and the Khmer Language of Cambodia amongst civilised peoples and by a number of ancivilised tribes in the Malay Peninsula and Indo-China. It has affinities also with the speech of the tribes in the Peninsula, who are generally classed as "wild Malays" (Orang-utan and Orang-bukit), so far as that speech has come under the old influence of the Indo-Chinese Languages. The Nicobarese language is thus of considerable value philologically, as preserving, on account of isolation and small admixture with foreign tongues for many centuries, the probable true basis for the philology of the Languages of the Indo-Chinese Family.
d. - Dialects. The langnnge is spoken by 6,300 penple in six Dialects, which have now become so differentiated in details as to be mutually unintelligible, and to be practically, so far as actual colloquial speech is concerned, six different languages. These dialects are limited in range by the islands in which they are spoken --
1. Car Nicobar (population 3,451). 2. Chowra (population 522 ). 3. Teressa with Bompoka (population 702). 4. Central - Camorta, Nancowry, Trinkut, Katchal (population 1,095). 5. Southern -Great Nicobar Coasts and Kondal, Little Nicobar and Pulo Milo (population
192). 6. Shom Pen--inland tribe of Great Nicobar (population 348).
e.- Mutual Unintelligibility. Altbouch it can be proved that the Nicobarese Language is fondamentally one tongue, yet the hopeless unintelligibility of the dialect of one Island to the ear of the people of another may be shown by the following example:
Car Nicobar. om paiakūa dra. chian ka tarik dou't afraid not I eat man
Central, wòt mei pahóa chit okngok ten paiyah - don't you afraid I not eat.. to man
- Sense of Both. . Don't be afraid ! I don't eat men ! (I am not a cannibal).
1- Foreign Influence. In spite of the aptitude of the people for picking up such foreign tongues as they hear spoken, quite a few foreign words have been adopted into their speech. Examples are
From Portuguese. ENGLISH. NICOBARESE.
ENGLISH
NICOBARESE. boot shapata
cask
pīpa hook, paper lēbare
elephant
lifants bat shapeo
rupee
rupia copper money Santa Maria
shaman, sorcerer pater God
Dēnse, Rēos
From Hindustani, sbal, sal
From Malay. mongko
an evil spirit i wipot26 buffalo kapo
haiyam cat
kocbing 24 The iwi are spirits of the doparted ghosts, one of which is iwi.pot, pot being the Sanskrit bhata through some Indo-Chinese form,
salt
cup
fowl
