Car language
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Car (Script error: No such module "Lang".) is the most widely spoken Nicobarese language of the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal.
Although a member of the Austroasiatic language family, it is typologically much more akin to nearby Austronesian languages such as Nias and Acehnese, with which it forms a linguistic area.[1] Car is a VOS language and somewhat agglutinative.[2] There is a quite complicated verbal suffix system with some infixes, as well as distinct genitive and "interrogative" cases for nouns and pronouns.[3]
Phonology
Consonants
- The alveolar flap can typically be pre-stopped. Before a voiceless consonant, its pre-articulation is voiceless as Script error: No such module "IPA"., and elsewhere it is voiced Script error: No such module "IPA"..
Vowels
- Script error: No such module "IPA". only occurs in English loanwords.
- Vowel sounds are also typically short when occurring before an Script error: No such module "IPA"..[4]
Morphology
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).
- ɲa - 'to eat' / haɲaː 'to feed'
- pɯɲ - 'to cry' / hapɯɲ-ɲɔː 'to make cry'
- kucik - 'be palatable' / kumcik 'to taste'
- kale - 'brave' / kumle 'bravery'
Vocabulary
Paul Sidwell (2017)[5] published in ICAAL 2017 conference on Nicobarese languages.
| Word | Car | proto-Nicobarese |
|---|---|---|
| hot | taɲ | *taɲ |
| four | fɛːn | *foan |
| child | kuːn | *kuːn |
| lip | (minuh) | *manuːɲ |
| dog | ʔam | *ʔam |
| night | hatəːm | *hatəːm |
| male | koːɲ | *koːɲ |
| ear | naŋ | *naŋ |
| one | heŋ | *hiaŋ |
| belly | (ʔac) | *ʔac |
| sun | (tavuːj) | - |
| sweet | (pacaːka) | - |
| overflow | tareːci | *roac |
| nose | mɛh | *moah |
| breast | tɛh | *toah |
| to cough | ʔɛhɛ | *ʔoah |
| arm | kɛl | *koal |
| in, inside | ʔɛl | *ʔoal |
| elbow | sikɔŋ | *keaŋ |
References
Template:Austro-Asiatic languages
- ↑ Cysouw, Michael; Quantitative explorations of the world-wide distribution of rare characteristics, or: the exceptionality of north-western European languages Template:Webarchive; pp. 11-12
- ↑ WALS: Nicobarese
- ↑ Whitehead, Rev. G.; Dictionary of the Car (Nicobarese) language; published 1925 by American Baptist Mission Press; pp. xxvi-xxxii
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Sidwell, Paul. 2017. "Proto-Nicobarese Phonology, Morphology, Syntax: work in progress". International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics 7, Kiel, Sept 29-Oct 1, 2017.