Kanikkaran language
Introduction '''Kanikkaran''', also known as '''Kani''', is a Dravidian language spoken by about 19,000 Kanikkar tribals in southern India. 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."
Phonology === Vowels ===Kanikkaran has 5 vowels, /a, e, i, o, u/. It demonstrates contrastive vowel length.=== Consonants ===LabialDentalAlveolarRetroflexPalatalVelarNasalStopvoicelessvoicedApproximantTrillFlapThey 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.
Grammar singularplural1stñānñāṇkaḷu2ndīlnīṇkaḷu3rdavanu/avaḷuavaruThe 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").
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