Kanikkaran language

Kanikkaran
கணிக்காரன்/കണ്ണിക്കാരൻ
Native toIndia
RegionTamil Nadu, Kanyakumari
EthnicityKanikkaran
Native speakers
19,000 (2007)
Dravidian
Early forms
Tamil script, Malayalam script
Language codes
ISO 639-3kev
Glottologkani1275

Kanikkaran (IPA: [kaːɳikːaːrɐn]), also known as Kani, is a Dravidian language spoken by about 19,000 Kanikkar tribals in southern India. 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."

Phonology

Vowels

Kanikkaran has 5 vowels, /a, e, i, o, u/. It demonstrates contrastive vowel length.

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.

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").

References

  1. 1 2 Kanikkaran at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. 1 2 3 4 Shyam, S.K. (12 December 2017). "Aspects of Life and Language of Kanikkar Tribal Community of Kerala –A Study". Language in India.