A Classification of the Nicobarese languages
In this paper, I report the results of a computational phylogenetic experiment based on a modified Swadesh 100 list intended to provide indications of the internal branching of the Nicobarese languages. To date, little work has been done on the classification of the small Nicobarese group, which app...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Hawaii Press
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society |
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10524/52496 |
| _version_ | 1818985819662188544 |
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| author | Paul Sidwell |
| author_facet | Paul Sidwell |
| author_sort | Paul Sidwell |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this paper, I report the results of a computational phylogenetic experiment based on a modified Swadesh 100 list intended to provide indications of the internal branching of the Nicobarese languages. To date, little work has been done on the classification of the small Nicobarese group, which appears to consist of approximately seven distinct languages spoken across an island chain. Three of the languages have published dictionaries and partial descriptions, while the others are fragmentarily documented, and the materials can be highly problematic to work with. The findings of the experiment suggest three principal sub-groups: Northern and Southern groups consisting of single languages (Car and Shompen, respectively) and a complex Central group that includes all other documented lects and may be regarded as a dialect chain. The Central languages appear to be rather close lexically and grammatically, although some phonological diversity is evident. There are textual claims that the various islands have been in mutual contact historically, and the phylogenetic results perhaps provide some indications of the patterns of this contact. The data supporting the study, and Nexus file used to generate the analyses, are made available as a Zenodo archive for transparency and reproducibility (10.5281/zenodo.5508350). |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T18:40:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a21b66982a994e40a5187d4f6765c6cf |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1836-6821 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T18:40:58Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | University of Hawaii Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-a21b66982a994e40a5187d4f6765c6cf2022-12-21T19:29:48ZengUniversity of Hawaii PressJournal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society1836-68212022-01-01151116A Classification of the Nicobarese languagesPaul SidwellIn this paper, I report the results of a computational phylogenetic experiment based on a modified Swadesh 100 list intended to provide indications of the internal branching of the Nicobarese languages. To date, little work has been done on the classification of the small Nicobarese group, which appears to consist of approximately seven distinct languages spoken across an island chain. Three of the languages have published dictionaries and partial descriptions, while the others are fragmentarily documented, and the materials can be highly problematic to work with. The findings of the experiment suggest three principal sub-groups: Northern and Southern groups consisting of single languages (Car and Shompen, respectively) and a complex Central group that includes all other documented lects and may be regarded as a dialect chain. The Central languages appear to be rather close lexically and grammatically, although some phonological diversity is evident. There are textual claims that the various islands have been in mutual contact historically, and the phylogenetic results perhaps provide some indications of the patterns of this contact. The data supporting the study, and Nexus file used to generate the analyses, are made available as a Zenodo archive for transparency and reproducibility (10.5281/zenodo.5508350).http://hdl.handle.net/10524/52496language classificationphylogeneticssound change |
| spellingShingle | Paul Sidwell A Classification of the Nicobarese languages Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society language classification phylogenetics sound change |
| title | A Classification of the Nicobarese languages |
| title_full | A Classification of the Nicobarese languages |
| title_fullStr | A Classification of the Nicobarese languages |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Classification of the Nicobarese languages |
| title_short | A Classification of the Nicobarese languages |
| title_sort | classification of the nicobarese languages |
| topic | language classification phylogenetics sound change |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10524/52496 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT paulsidwell aclassificationofthenicobareselanguages AT paulsidwell classificationofthenicobareselanguages |