安达曼原住民已生活了上万年,南亚东南亚的海上强国和贸易船队早就知道其存在,但直接交流鲜有发生且通常帶有敵意。因此直到17世纪中叶,尚未有任何关于他们语言的记载。到17世纪末,英国人首次在安达曼群岛建立殖民地,当时约有5千安达曼人生活在大安达曼岛附近的岛屿上,分成10个部落,语言互不相同又密切相关。1860年代开始,随着安达曼群岛上英国流放地的建立,以及后来印度次大陆移民和包身工的到来,安达曼原住民,尤其是大安达曼族群,开始受到来自外界的持续影响。同时,受到外来疾病的影响,安达曼人人口急剧减少,1961年时仅剩19人。
语音学家亞歷山大·約翰·艾利斯(英语:Alexander John Ellis)退休后对安达曼语言进行了描写。“南安达曼语言”作為最早期关于安达曼语言的英语文章之一,被提交给了语言学会。后来,这篇文章被进一步地改动为 “关于南安达曼语言的研究报告(Report of Researches into the Language of the South Andaman Island)”。[4]
正如在这段引文中提到的,Greenberg提出大安达曼语与西巴布亚语系有关,将二者都划入印度-太平洋语系。[14]这个观点没有被语言学界普遍接受。
Stephen Wurm指出,根据许多资料,大安达曼语言和西巴布亚语言,及帝汶的某些语言在词汇上的相似之处“相当惊人,甚至可以正式建立他们之间的联系[...]”。但他也认为,这些更多是底层的影响,而非来自亲属关系。[16]Blevins(2007)提出了翁奇语与南岛语有关的观点,试图建立语音对应规则[17]。这没有得到南岛语学者的支持,Robert Blust (2014)发现Blevins的结论没有数据支持:在前25个构拟中,没有一个可用比较法构拟,Blust还认为语法比较也不成立。此外,Blust还引用了非语言学(如文化、考古与生物)证据反驳Blevins的假说。[18]
参考文献
^Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (编). 安达曼语系. Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. 2016.
^ 2.02.1Abbi, Anvita (2008). "Is Great Andamanese genealogically and typologically distinct from Onge and Jarawa?" Language Sciences, doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2008.02.002
^Abbi, Anvita and Bidisha Som (2007). "Where Have All The Speakers Gone? A Sociolinguistic Study of The Great Andamanese", Indian Linguistics 68.3–4:325–343.
^ 9.09.19.2Temple, Richard C. (1902). A Grammar of the Andamanese Languages, being Chapter IV of Part I of the Census Report on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Superintendent's Printing Press: Port Blair.
^ 14.014.1Greenberg, Joseph (1971). "The Indo-Pacific hypothesis." Current trends in linguistics vol. 8, ed. by Thomas A. Sebeok, 807.71. The Hague: Mouton.
^Robert Blust (2014) "Some Recent Proposals Concerning the Classification of the Austronesian Languages", Oceanic Linguistics 53:2:300–391.
书目
Abbi, Anvita. 2006. Endangered Languages of the Andaman Islands. LINCOM Studies in Asian Linguistics, 64. München: Lincom Europa. ISBN 3895868663
Blevins, Juliette. A Long Lost Sister of Proto-Austronesian? Proto-Ongan, Mother of Jarawa and Onge of the Andaman Islands. Oceanic Linguistics. 2007, 46 (1): 154–198.
Burenhult, Niclas. 1996. Deep linguistic prehistory with particular reference to Andamanese. Working Papers 45, 5-24. Lund University: Department of Linguistics.
Man, E.H. 1883. On the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 12.
Manoharan, S. 1997. “Pronominal Prefixes and Formative Affixes in Andamanese Language.” Anvita Abbi (ed.). The Languages of Tribal and Indigenous Peoples of India. The Ethnic Space. Delhi: Motilal Benarsidass.
Portman, M.V. 1887. A Manual of the Andamanese Languages. London: W.H. Allen & Co.
Temple, Richard C. A Grammar of the Andamanese Languages, being Chapter IV of Part I of the Census Report on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Superintendent's Printing Press: Port Blair 1902.
Zide, Norman Herbert & V. Pandya. 1989. "A Bibliographical Introduction to Andamanese Linguistics." Journal of the American Oriental Society 109: 639-51.