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Not to be confused with the Kar language of Burkina Faso.

Car (Pū) 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.[3] Car is a VOS language and somewhat agglutinative.[4] There is a quite complicated verbal suffix system with some infixes, as well as distinct genitive and “interrogative” cases for nouns and pronouns.[5]

Phonology

Consonants

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
  • The alveolar flap can typically be pre-stopped. Before a voiceless consonant, its pre-articulation is voiceless as [ᵗɾ], and elsewhere it is voiced [ᵈɾ].

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Close-mid e ɤ o
Open-mid ɛ ə ɔ
Open (æ) a
  • /æ/ only occurs in English loanwords.
  • Vowel sounds are also typically short when occurring before an /h/.[6]

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)[7] 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

  1. ^ Car at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (Report) (3rd ed.). UNESCO. 2010. p. 31.
  3. ^ Cysouw, Michael; Quantitative explorations of the world-wide distribution of rare characteristics, or: the exceptionality of north-western European languages Archived 2009-05-14 at the Wayback Machine; pp. 11-12
  4. ^ WALS: Nicobarese
  5. ^ Whitehead, Rev. G.; Dictionary of the Car (Nicobarese) language; published 1925 by American Baptist Mission Press; pp. xxvi–xxxii
  6. ^ Sidwell, Paul (2015). Car Nicobarese. The Handbook of Austroasiatic Languages: Leiden: Brill. pp. 1231–1240.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  7. ^ Sidwell, Paul. 2017. “Proto-Nicobarese Phonology, Morphology, Syntax: work in progress“. International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics 7, Kiel, Sept 29-Oct 1, 2017.