Önge language

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Önge
Spoken in:	India
Total speakers:	approx. 96
Language family:	Andamanese (possibly) Ongan Önge
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`-`
ISO 639-3:	`oon`
A map of tribal and language divisions in the Andaman Islands prior to the 1850s
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Önge language (also variously spelled as Onge, Eng or Ung) is a language spoken by the Onge people in Little Andaman Island. It is one of two languages known to belong to the Ongan branch of the Andamanese language family.

1 History
2 Phonology
- 2.1 Vowels
- 2.2 Consonants
3 See also
4 External Links

[edit] History

Onge used to be spoken throughout Little Andaman as well as in smaller islands to the north - and possibly in the southern tip of South Andaman island.

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, with the arrival of the British in the Andamans, and, after Indian independence, the massive inflow of Indian settlers from the mainland, the number of Onge speakers has steadily declined, although a moderate increase has been observed in recent years. Currently, there are only about 95 native speakers of Onge, confined to a single settlement in the northeast of Little Andaman island (see map below), making it an endangered language.

Distribution of the Ongan languages before colonial times (Fig. 1) and today (Fig. 2).