A Phonological Description of the Onge Language of Little Andaman

Abstract

This paper presents a detailed phonological description of the Onge language, spoken by the Negrito people of Little Andaman Island, based on the linguistic data compiled by Pranab Ganguly in his 1966 work, "Vocabulary of the Negritos of Little Andaman with Grammatical Notes and Materials." The study systematically outlines the tentative phoneme inventory of Onge, distinguishing between its consonant and vowel systems, and discusses observed phonological processes such as morphophonemic changes and vowel elision. Furthermore, it explores the intricate interface between Onge's phonology and its agglutinating grammatical structures, particularly in relation to prefixation, suffixation, and verb morphology, illustrating how these grammatical features manifest phonologically. While acknowledging the inherent limitations of the available data, this paper highlights the unique linguistic characteristics of Onge and underscores the critical urgency for further comprehensive documentation and research, given the language's highly endangered status and its uncertain linguistic classification.

Keywords: Onge language, Negrito, Little Andaman, Phonology, Agglutinating, Endangered Language, Linguistic Documentation, Morphophonemics.

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/106-03

Publication date: June 30^th 2025