Kanikkaran | |
---|---|
கணிக்காரன்/കണ്ണിക്കാരൻ | |
Native to | India |
Region | Tamil Nadu, Kanyakumari |
Ethnicity | Kanikkaran |
Native speakers | 19,000 (2007)[1] |
Dravidian
| |
Early forms | |
Tamil script, Malayalam script | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | kev |
Glottolog | kani1275 |
Kanikkaran, also known as Kani, is a Dravidian language spoken by about 19,000 Kanikkar tribals in southern India.[1] They dwell in forests and hills of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts of Kerala, and Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu. It is called malambhāsha, or "hill-language."[2]
Phonology
Vowels
Kanikkaran has 5 vowels, /a, e, i, o, u/. It demonstrates contrastive vowel length.[2]
Consonants
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n̪ | n | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ | |
Stop | voiceless | p | t̪ | ʈ | c | k | |
voiced | b | d̪ | |||||
Approximant | ʋ | l | ɭ | j | |||
Trill | r | ||||||
Flap | ɾ |
They use the phoneme /l̩/ occasionally.
Kanikkaran has transformed words in Malayalam starting with /a/ into /e/. añcu (5) becomes eñcu, ari (rice) becomes ei, arivāḷu (sickle) becomes erivāḷu, aluku (split reed) becomes elakku. It also adds a suffix -in or -n after all noun stems, except for nouns ending with -n in accusative.[2]
Grammar
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
1st | ñān | ñāṇkaḷu |
2nd | īl | nīṇkaḷu |
3rd | avanu/avaḷu | avaru |
The language cannot use personal terminations, similar to Old Malayalam. Example: pōvā (go or going or let's go) and vārā (will come, or "see you").[2]
References
- ^ a b Kanikkaran at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ a b c d Shyam, S.K. (12 December 2017). "Aspects of Life and Language of Kanikkar Tribal Community of Kerala –A Study". Language in India.