Shompen is a member of the Nicobarese branch of the Austroasiatic language family. It is spoken in the interior of Great Nicobar Island, part of the Indian union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Little is known about the Shompan language or people as outside researchers are not currently permitted to study the native peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There are an estimated 400 Shompen people who are thought to live in three villages: Dakade, Puithey and Tataiya. Some lists of Shompen words and other information about the language were collected in the late 19th century, and some other research has been undertaken since then.
Shompen is also known as Shobang, Shom Pen, Shom Peng or Shompeng. The Shompen people are thought to call themselves Shab Daw'a, although this is disputed. It is not closely related to any of the other Nicobarese languages.
There is no standard way to write Shompen, and it is not written by the people who speak it. Researchers have devised various ways to write it with the Latin alphabet and the IPA.
Download an alphabet chart for Shompen (Excel)
Information about Shompen | Numbers
Information about Shompen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shompen_language
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/sii
https://www.rogerblench.info/Language/Isolates/Shompen%20paper.pdf
https://www.isw.unibe.ch/ueber_uns/e41180/e523709/e544715/2010b_ger.pdf
Car, Chaura, Nancowry, Shompen
Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Page created: 06.07.21. Last modified: 05.02.24
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