Jarawa language (Andaman Islands)

Not to be confused with Jarawa language (Nigeria).

Jarawa
Aong
Native to	India
Region	Andaman Islands; interior and south central Rutland island, central interior and south interior of South Andaman island, Middle Andaman island, west coast, 70 square km reserve.
Ethnicity	Jarawa
Native speakers	270 (2001–2002) Literacy rate in L1: Below 1%.
Language family	Ongan Jarawa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	anq
Glottolog	jara1245

Järawa or Jarwa is an Ongan language spoken by the Jarawa people of the interior and south central Rutland Island, central interior and south interior South Andaman Island, and the west coast of Middle Andaman Island.

Järawa means 'foreigners' in Aka-Bea, the language of their traditional enemies. Like many peoples, they call themselves simply aong "people".

Phonology

Jarawa has six vowels and sixteen consonants, along with possible additional retroflexes, aspirates, and/or another vowel phoneme.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Mid		ə
Open		a

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
						plain	lab.
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	c	k
	voiced	b	d	ɟ	ɡ
Fricative						h	(hʷ)
Trill			r
Approximant			l	j	w

Characteristics

Word-initial contrast between /p/ and /b/ is disappearing, with /p/ becoming /b/ (note that in Onge /p/ is not phonemically present).

Jarawa words are at least monosyllabic, and content words are at least bimoraic. Maximal syllables are CVC.

/c/ voices intervocalically in derived environments, /ə/ syncopates when followed by another vowel across a morpheme boundary, /ə/ becomes [o] when the next syllable has a round vowel, and whole syllables may be deleted in fast speech.

External links

• Rosetta Project: Jarawa Swadesh list