The Language of the Shompen of Great Nicobar- A Preliminary Appraisal

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Shri Subhash C. Chattopadhyay and Asok K. Mukhopadhyay, two Linguists of the Anthropological Survey of India could collect information on language of the Shompen - a monolingual scheduled tribe of the Great Nicobar Island who have least interaction with the outside population. The authors admit that the information on the language of the Shompen available with them is not adequate. However, on the basis of available information the authors have brought an important issue into the notice of the academicians regarding the family affiliation of the Shompen language which has been classified by the International Encyclopaedia of Linguistics as Mon-Khmer group of Austro-Asiatic family of languages along with the Nicobarese. This preliminary study on the language of the Shompen suggests an affinity of their language with those of the populations of Polynesia and Melanesia.

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