Nancowry (Nancoury, Nankwari, ) is a Nicobarese language spoken on the Nancowry Island in the central Nicobar Islands. It is not mutually intelligible with the other Central Nicobarese languages, and is distantly related to Vietnamese and Khmer.
Phonology Consonants LabialAlveolar/RetroflexPalatalVelarGlottalPlosiveNasalFricative TapApproximant
The labial glide written variously v and w is written ʋ.
Vowels FrontCentralBackCloseClose-midOpen-midOpen
Vocabulary Paul Sidwell (2017)Sidwell, Paul. 2017. "Proto-Nicobarese Phonology, Morphology, Syntax: work in progress". International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics 7, Kiel, Sept 29-Oct 1, 2017. published in ICAAL 2017 conference on Nicobarese languages.
+ Word Nancowry proto-Nicobarese hot táɲ *taɲ four koan *foan child kúan *kuːn lip manúɲ *manuːɲ dog ʔám *ʔam night hatə́m *hatəːm male kóɲ *koːɲ ear náŋ *naŋ one hĩaŋ *hiaŋ belly wíaŋ *ʔac sun hɛ́ŋ - sweet síaŋ - deep cijáw - thigh pulóʔ - python tulán - road kají - yawn hiŋáp - centipede kaʔiáp - dream ʔinfuá - tongue kaliták - overflow yuait-nga *roac nose moah *moah breast toah *toah to cough oōàh *ʔoah arm koâl *koal in, inside oal, òl *ʔoal four fōan *foan elbow det-ongkēang *keaŋ
Morphology Presence of a coda-copy-infixation system. Stock of lexical roots is reduced by active word taboo and hence rely on derivation extensively.
kóɲ - 'male, husband' ʔumkóɲ -'to turn into a man' mumkóɲ - 'eunuch' ʔinkóɲtet - 'widower' kóɲu - 'to marry, to have a man' kamóɲu - 'married women'
Shared morphological alternations: the old AA causative has two allomorphs, prefix ha- with monosyllabic stems, infix -um- in disyllabic stems (note: *p > h onset in unstressed σ).
ŋok - 'to eat' / haŋok 'to feed' cim - 'to cry' / hacim 'to make someone cry' lapəʔ - 'pretty' / lumpəʔ 'to make someone pretty' karuʔ - 'large' / kumdruʔ 'to enlarge'
+Pronouns Person Singular Dual Plural 1st cə̃ˑ ~ cɯ̃ˑə xãˑʔ (incl.)ci ʔaˑj (excl.) xeˑʔ (incl.)ci ʔəˑj (excl.) 2nd mɛ̃ˑ ʔinãˑ ʔifeˑ 3rd ʔə̃ˑn ʔunãˑ ʔufeˑ Dem- Prox nɛˑʔ - ʔiˑn Dem- Dist ʔãˑn ŋãˑŋ kəˑʔ
References