Car | |
---|---|
Pū | |
Pronunciation | [puː] |
Native to | India |
Region | Nicobar Islands |
Native speakers | 37,000 (2005)[1] |
Latin script | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | caq |
Glottolog | carn1240 |
ELP | Car Nicobarese |
Coordinates: 9°11′N 92°46′E / 9.19°N 92.77°E |
Car (Pū) is the most widely spoken of the Nicobarese languages spoken in the Nicobar Islands of India.
Although related distantly to Vietnamese and Khmer, it is typologically much more akin to nearby Austronesian languages such as Nias and Acehnese, with which it forms a linguistic area.[2]
Car is a VOS language and somewhat agglutinative.[3] There is a quite complicated verbal suffix system with some infixes, as well as distinct genitive and "interrogative" cases for nouns and pronouns.[4]
Labial | Alveolar/ Retroflex |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p | t | c | k | ʔ |
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
Fricative | f v | s | h | ||
Tap | ɾ ɽ | ||||
Approximant | l | j |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | ɨ | u |
Close-mid | e | ɤ | o |
Open-mid | ɛ | ə | ɔ |
Open | (æ) | a |
Paul Sidwell (2017)[6] 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 |
four | feːn | *foan |
elbow | sikɔŋ | *keaŋ |
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).