Chapter XXVIII: Appendix: B

THE SPELLING OF ANDAMANESE WORDS

In writing words of the Andaman languages I have used a slightly modified form of the “Anthropos” Alphabet of Father Schmidt [260], which I consider to be by far the most scientific alphabet for writing down the languages of primitive peoples. The consonants are

k g y ŋ
č ǰ
ń
t d n l r
p b w m

The letter ŋ is used for the nasalised guttural stop (ng in English) which should always be written with one letter, since it is a single consonant, quite distinct from the double consonant ng of “ungodly.” The letter ń stands for a palatalised n, something like the sound in French “agneau.” The č and ǰ, which, in the “Anthropos” Alphabet represent the sounds in English “church” and “judge” respectively, should, I think, really be written t′ and d′. The t′ is a palatalised t, as heard in “Tuesday,” whereas the č is a fricative, often regarded as a compound of t and sh. It is not always easy to distinguish t′ from č and d′ from ǰ, but I believe the Andamanese sounds are really t′ and d′, and this is to some extent confirmed by the fact that they have no s, z, sh or zh in their languages. I have used the č and ǰ because former writers had written these sounds ch and j and it seemed worth while to make some sacrifice of scientific exactness in order to avoid too great a divergence in spelling from previous workers in the same field.

The remaining consonants may be pronounced as in English. I have not distinguished between different varieties of the consonants l, r, t, d, k and g. Further I have not distinguished between p and p̌ (the labial fricative). Many of the words of the Northern languages that I have written with a p are often pronounced with a p̌ sound.

The vowels are

i u
e o ö
e̱ o̱
a̤ a̱̱
a

These may be pronounced as follows:

i, intermediate between the vowels of “it” and “eat.”
e, as the vowel in “say.”
e̱, as the e in “error” or the a in “Mary.”
a̤, as the a in “man.”
a, as the a in French “pas.”
a̱̱, as the a in “path.”
o̱, as the vowel in “not” or in “nought.”
o, as in “go.”
u, as the vowel in “fool.”
ö, nearly as the German ö.

I have not attempted to distinguish all the different varieties of vowel sounds that are found in the different dialects. Slightly different but closely related sounds are represented by the same letter [261].

In writing Andamanese words I have followed the practice of separating by hyphens the affixes from the stems in each word. In the Andamanese languages there are two main classes of words. The first class consists of words each of which is a simple stem (without affixes). Such words are the names of what the Andaman Islander regards as simple independent objects or things, such as roa, canoe, baraba, a mat, ra, a pig. The second class consists of words each of which is formed of a stem and a prefix. In the language of the Little Andaman (and in that of the Jarawa as far as known) these prefixes are simple vowels, i-, e-, a-, o-, and u-. In the languages of the Great Andaman Division they are such as ot-, aka-, era-, e-, u-, ab-, etc. Such words are used to denote dependent objects such as the parts, qualities or actions of a thing. Thus while a pig (ra) or a canoe (roa) is an independent object and is therefore denoted by a simple stem, the head or prow of a pig or canoe, being a part of a “thing,” is denoted by a word (ot-čo) consisting of a stem (-čo) and a prefix (ot-). So also the quality of bigness which may belong to a pig or a canoe is denoted by a word (er-kuro) consisting of a stem (-kuro) and a prefix (er-).

Thus the second class includes many words that we should call nouns, all the words we should call adjectives and practically all those we should regard as verbs. In the Andamanese languages the distinction between nouns and adjectives is not very clear and even less so is the distinction between adjectives and verbs. Whereas the distinction between things (independent objects) on the one hand, and the parts, qualities, actions, etc. of things on the other, is of the utmost importance. For this reason I have thought it advisable always to separate by a hyphen the prefix and the stem in words of the second class.

In compound words or phrases in which the second word consists of prefix and stem it is common to insert before the prefix a t or an l. Thus ra t’er-kuro is “a big pig” and ra t’ot-čo is “a pig’s head.” In writing such words I have placed an inverted comma between the t or l and the prefix. This infix t must not be confused with the first personal pronoun in the North Andaman, Tio, contracted to T’ before a prefix.

NOTES

[1] “Notes on the Languages of the Andaman Islands,” by A. R. Brown, Anthropos, Vol. IX, 1914, pp. 36–52 with map. This paper contains notes on I, The Relations of the Andamanese Languages, and II, The Formation of Words in the Language of the Little Andaman.

[2] I hope to be able to publish shortly the first volume of a work in which the same method is applied to the interpretation of the social institutions of the natives of Australia.

[3] The formation of the Arakan Fold (including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands), dates from the middle of the Tertiary Period, and was apparently connected with the great movements that produced the Himalaya-Alpine mountain system and the Circum-Pacific Fold. The Andaman Sea, in the later Tertiary period, was prolonged much further to the north, over the region now occupied by the Pegu Yomah.

[4] This line of volcanic activity is a minor continuation of the Sunda Range of volcanoes of Java and Sumatra. It is continued northward, parallel to the Arakan Fold, as far as the extinct volcano of Puppadoung, east of Pagan, not far from Lat. 21°.

[5] The flora of the Andamans and Cocos contains a number of species, the presence of which can only be explained by the supposition of a past land connection with the Arakan region. (See Prain, “The Vegetation of the Coco Group,” Journ. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, Vol. LX,