Andamanese languages
| Andamanese | |
|---|---|
| (geographic) | |
| Ethnicity: | Andamanese |
| Geographic distribution: |
Andaman Islands, India |
| Linguistic classification: | Two independent language families |
| Subdivisions: |
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| Glottolog: | None |
Ethnolinguistic map of the precolonial Andaman Islands
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The Andamanese languages are the indigenous languages of the Andaman Islands, spoken by the Andamanese Negritos. There are two clear families of Andamanese languages, Great Andamanese and Ongan, as well as Sentinelese, which is unknown and therefore at present unclassifiable.
The indigenous Andamanese people have lived on the islands for thousands of years. Although the existence of the islands and their inhabitants was long known to maritime powers and traders of the South– and Southeast–Asia region, contact with these peoples was highly sporadic and very often hostile; as a result, almost nothing is recorded of them or their languages until the mid-18th century. From the 1860s onwards, the setting up of a permanent British penal colony and the subsequent arrival of immigrant settlers and indentured labourers mainly from the Indian subcontinent brought the first sustained impacts upon these societies, particularly among the Great Andamanese groups.
By the beginning of the 20th century most of these populations were greatly reduced in numbers, and the various linguistic and tribal divisions among the Great Andamanese effectively ceased to exist, despite a census of the time still classifying the groups as separate. Their linguistic diversity also suffered as the surviving populations intermingled with one another, and some also intermarried with Karen (Burmese) and Indian settlers.
By the latter part of the 20th century the majority of Great Andamanese languages had become extinct.
At the start of the 21st century only about 50 or so individuals of Great Andamanese descent remained, resettled to a single small island (Strait I.); about half of these speak what may be considered a modified version (or creole) of Great Andamanese, based mainly on Aka-Jeru. This modified version has been called "Present Great Andamanese" by some scholars, but also may be referred to simply as "Jero" or "Great Andamanese". Hindi increasingly serves as their primary language, and is the only language for around half of them.
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