1. History

Distribution of Andamanese tribes in early 1800s and 2004; the Onge areas are in blue. https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?curid=1622254

In the 18th century the Onge were distributed across Little Andaman Island and the nearby islands, with some territory and camps established on Rutland Island and the southern tip of South Andaman Island. Originally restive, they were pacified by M. V. Portman in the 1890s.^[1][2] By the end of the 19th century they sometimes visited the South and North Brother Islands to catch sea turtles; at the time, those islands seemed to be the boundary between their territory and the range of the Great Andamanese people further north.^[2] Today, the surviving members (less than 100) are confined to two reserve camps on Little Andaman, Dugong Creek in the northeast and South Bay.

The Onge were semi-nomadic and fully dependent on hunting and gathering for food.

The Onge are one of the aboriginal peoples (adivasi) of India. Together with the other Andamanese tribes and a few other isolated groups elsewhere in East Asia, they comprise the Negrito peoples, believed to be remnants of a very early migration out of Africa.

2. Status

Önge used to be spoken throughout Little Andaman as well as in smaller islands to the north - and possibly in the southern tip of South Andaman island. Since the middle of the 19th century, with the arrival of the British in the Andamans, and, after Indian independence, the massive inflow of Indian settlers from the mainland, the number of Onge speakers has steadily declined, although a moderate increase has been observed in recent years.^[3] Currently, there are only 94 native speakers of Onge,^[4] confined to a single settlement in the northeast of Little Andaman island (see map below), making it an endangered language.

Demographic Troubles

The Onge are one of the least fertile people in the world. About 40% of the married couples are sterile. Onge women rarely become pregnant before the age of 28.^[5] Infant and child mortality is in the range of 40%.^[6] The Onge's net reproductive index is 0.91.^[7] The net reproductive index among the Great Andamanese is 1.40.^[8]

thumb|A depiction of Onge people in Kolkata Museum

Population^[9]

<timeline> Colors=

id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) id:barra value:rgb(0.6,0.7,0.8) 

ImageSize = width:455 height:303 PlotArea = left:50 bottom:50 top:30 right:30 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:800 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:150 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo

BarData=

bar:1901 text:1901 bar:1911 text:1911 bar:1921 text:1921 bar:1931 text:1931 bar:1951 text:1951 bar:1961 text:1961 bar:1971 text:1971 bar:1981 text:1981 bar:1991 text:1991 bar:2001 text:2001 bar:2011 text:2011 

PlotData=

color:barra width:20 align:left 

bar:1901 from: 0 till:672 bar:1911 from: 0 till:631 bar:1921 from: 0 till:346 bar:1931 from: 0 till:250 bar:1951 from: 0 till:150 bar:1961 from: 0 till:129 bar:1971 from: 0 till:112 bar:1981 from: 0 till:100 bar:1991 from: 0 till:101 bar:2001 from: 0 till:96 bar:2011 from: 0 till:101 

PlotData=

bar:1901 at:672 fontsize:XS text: 672 shift:(-8,5) bar:1911 at:631 fontsize:XS text: 631 shift:(-8,5) bar:1921 at:346 fontsize:XS text: 346 shift:(-8,5) bar:1931 at:250 fontsize:XS text: 250 shift:(-8,5) bar:1951 at:150 fontsize:XS text: 150 shift:(-8,5) bar:1961 at:129 fontsize:XS text: 129 shift:(-8,5) bar:1971 at:112 fontsize:XS text: 112 shift:(-8,5) bar:1981 at:100 fontsize:XS text: 100 shift:(-8,5) bar:1991 at:101 fontsize:XS text: 101 shift:(-8,5) bar:2001 at:96 fontsize:XS text: 96 shift:(-8,5) bar:2011 at:101 fontsize:XS text: 101 shift:(-8,5) 

TextData=

fontsize:S pos:(20,20) text:Data from Indian Census 

</timeline>

3. Phonology

3.1. Vowels

There is some vowel harmony: 1p pl. prefix et- becomes [ot-] when the vowel in the next syllable is /u/, e.g. et-eɟale 'our faces' but ot-oticule 'our heads'.^[10]

3.2. Consonants

/ʔ/? (c.f. Blevins (2007:161))

Blevins (2007:160-161) states that /c, ɟ/ are actually affricates, and that retroflexes may or may not be phonemic.

/kʷ/ delabializes to /k/ before /u, o/.^[10]

Phonemic /d/ surfaces as [r] intervocalically, while arguably some words have phonemic /r/ which alternates with surface [r, l, j].^[11]

3.3. Phonotactics

Words may be monosyllabic or longer, even in content words (unlike in the closely related Jarawa).^[10] Words may begin with consonants or vowels, and maximal syllables are of the form CVC.^[10] All Onge words end in vowels, except for imperatives, e.g. kaʔ 'give'.

Consonant-final stems in Jarawa often have cognates with final e in Onge, e.g. Jarawa iŋ, Onge iŋe 'water'; Jarawa inen, Onge inene 'foreigner'; Jarawa dag, Onge dage 'coconut'.^[10] Historically these vowels must have been excrescent, as nonetymological word-final e doesn't surface when number markers are suffixed, and the definite article (-gi after etymological consonants, -i after etymological vowels, due to lenition) appears as -i after etymological e but as -gi after excrescent e, e.g. daŋe → daŋe-gi 'tree; dugout'; kue → kue-i 'pig'.^[12]

NC clusters sometimes optionally reduce to single C, e.g. iɲɟo-~iɟo- 'to drink' (c.f. Jarawa -iɲɟo).^[13]

Voiced obstruents may optionally nasalize in syllable onset when the coda is nasal, e.g. bone/mone 'resin, resin torch' (c.f. Jarawa pone 'resin, resin torch').^[13]

3.4. Morphophonemics

Clusters across morpheme boundaries simplify to homorganic sequences, including geminates, which may occur after word final -e drops, e.g. daŋe 'tree, dugout canoe' → dandena 'two canoes'; umuge 'pigeon' → umulle 'pigeons'.^[10]

The content is sourced from: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Social:%C3%96nge_language