Shompen language

Shompen is a poorly known language, or languages, spoken on Great Nicobar Island in the Indian union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean south of Burma.

Partially because the native peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are protected from outside researchers, Shompen is poorly described, with much of the data from the 19th century, and the little 20th–21st century data of poor quality. However, Roger Blench and Paul Sidwell demonstrate that it is an Austroasiatic language, though they suggest that it might constitute a distinct branch of that family.

Speakers

The Shompen are hunter-gatherers living in the hilly hinterland of the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve. Population estimates are approximately 400, although no census has been conducted.

Data

During the 20th century, the only data available were a short word list in De Roepstorff (1875),^[2] scattered notes Man (1886),^[3] and comparative list in Man (1889).^[4]

It was a century before more data became available. 70 words were published in 1995,^[5] and then in 2003 substantial new data was published, the most extensive so far.^[6] However, Blench and Sidwell (2011) note that the 2003 book is at least partially plagiarized, the authors show little sign of understanding the material, which is full of anomalies and inconsistencies,^[7] and that the data appears to have been taken from an earlier source or sources, perhaps from the colonial era.^[8] Van Driem (2008) found it too difficult to work with,^[9] but Blench and Sidwell made an attempt at analyzing and retranscribing the data, based on comparisons of Malay loan words and identifiable cognates with other Mon–Khmer languages. They conclude that the data in the 1995 and 2003 publications come from either the same language or two closely related languages.

Classification

Although traditionally lumped in with the Nicobarese languages, which form a branch of the Austroasiatic (Mon–Khmer) language family, there was little evidence to support this assumption during the 20th century. Man (1886) notes that there are very few Shompen words which "bear any resemblance" to Nicobarese, and also that "in most instances" words differ between the two Shompen groups he worked with. For example, the word for "back (of the body)" is given as gikau, tamnōi, and hokōa in different sources; "to bathe" as pu(g)oihoɔp and hōhōm; and "head" as koi and fiāu. In some of these cases, this may be a matter of borrowed versus native vocabulary, as koi appears to be Nicobarese, but it also suggests that Shompen may not be a single language.

Based on the 1997 data, however, van Driem concluded that Shompen was a Nicobarese language.^[9]

Blench and Sidwell note many cognates with both Nicobarese and with North Aslian in the 2003 data, including many words found only in Nicobarese or only in North Aslian (or sometimes North and Central Aslian), and also note that Shompen shares historical phonological developments with North Aslian. Given the likelihood of borrowing from Nicobarese, this suggests that Shompen may be a North Aslian or at least Aslian language, or perhaps is a third branch of a Southern Mon–Khmer family alongside Aslian and Nicobarese.^[8]

Phonology

It is not clear if the following description applies to all varieties of Shompen, or how phonemic it is where it does apply.

Eight vowel qualities are recovered from the transcription, /i e ɛ a ə ɔ o u/, which may be nasalized and also appear long. There are numerous vowel sequences and diphthongs.

The consonants are attested as follows:

Many Mon–Khmer roots with final nasal stops, *m *n *ŋ, appear in Shompen with voiced oral stops [b d ɡ]. This resembles Aslian, and especially North Aslian, where historical final nasals have become prestopped or fully oral. However, whereas in North Aslian nasals conflated with oral stops, in Shompen oral stops appear to have first been lost, only to be reacquired as nasals became oral. There are also, however, numerous words which retain final nasal stops. It is not clear if borrowing from Nicobarese is enough to explain all of these—Shompen could have been partially relexified under the influence of Nicobarese, or consultants might have given Nicobarese words during elicitation—though it was clearly the case for some.

Other historical sound changes are word-final *r and *l as [w], *r before a vowel as [j], loss of final *h and *s, and the breaking of Mon–Khmer long vowels into diphthongs.

References