This article is part of Dialectical, a Himal series that explores Southasia’s languages, their connections and shared histories.
Discussions on languages of Southasia are often limited to languages spoken in mainland Southasia. Rarely mentioned are the lesser-known languages spoken on the numerous islands of the region. These languages of the islanders, many endangered and vulnerable, are not only treasure troves for linguists but also an integral part of these speech communities' identity, history, knowledge and culture.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are the largest archipelago system in the Bay of Bengal, situated around 1200 kilometres to the east of mainland India. There are 836 islands in this archipelago, including islets and rocky outcrops, out of which just 38 are inhabited; of these, 11 are in the Andaman group and 13 in the Nicobars. The Andaman group of islands is further divided into two main sub-groups: the main islands in the north, middle and south Andamans are collectively known as the Greater Andamans, and the southernmost island as Little Andaman.
The Andaman Islands are the habitat of four different indigenous groups – the Greater Andamanese, the Jarawa, the Onge and the Sentinelese. Genomic studies have indicated that Andamanese aborigines share prehistoric connections with Southeast Asia and arrived in the islands some 26,000 years ago via what is now Myanmar. These hunter-gatherer communities once inhabited the entire Andamans, but are now restricted to fixed territories. While the exact timeline of the peopling of the Andaman Islands remains undetermined, there is a long history of isolation, cultural distinctiveness and independent societal evolution in these islands.