Kanikkaran language
Kanikkaran (IPA: [kaːɳikːaːrɐn]), also known as Kani, is a Dravidian language spoken by about 19,000 Kanikkar tribals in southern India.[1] They dwell in forests and hills of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts of Kerala, and Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu. It is called malambhāsha, or "hill-language."[2] PhonologyVowelsKanikkaran has 5 vowels, /a, e, i, o, u/. It demonstrates contrastive vowel length.[2] Consonants
They use the phoneme /l̩/ occasionally. Kanikkaran has transformed words in Malayalam starting with /a/ into /e/. añcu (5) becomes eñcu, ari (rice) becomes ei, arivāḷu (sickle) becomes erivāḷu, aluku (split reed) becomes elakku. It also adds a suffix -in or -n after all noun stems, except for nouns ending with -n in accusative.[2] Grammar
The language cannot use personal terminations, similar to Old Malayalam. Example: pōvā (go or going or let's go) and vārā (will come, or "see you").[2] References
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