Language

Maniq [maˈniʔ] is a previously undescribed language of the Northern branch of Aslian (Mon-Khmer, Austroasiatic). It is also referred to as Tonga, Mos or Ten’en (Ethnologue code: tnz). The features of the language include:

• 27 consonant phonemes (among others, voiceless nasals) and 20 distinctive vocalic nuclei (an oral and a nasal series)
• intricate morphological processes (combined reduplication and affixation)
• SVO as the default constituent order
• rich semantic distinctions in the domain of perception
• lexical borrowing from Malay and Thai

Geography

Maniq groups of approximately 5-50 people are scattered across the Khao Banthad mountain range in Trang, Satun and Phattalung provinces of southern Thailand. The area is a biodiversity hotspot covered with tropical rainforest hosting a rich flora and fauna as well as a number of scenic tourist attractions such as waterfalls and caves. In the last few decades, however, the forest has been dwindling under the pressure of expanding rubber plantations, which has reduced species richness and considerably restricted the subsistence area of the Maniq.

People and Culture

Maniq people belong to the ethnographical cluster of nomadic foragers referred to as the Semang, who together with the Senoi and the Aboriginal Malay are collectively named Orang Asli (Malay for 'original people'). Owing to their short stature, curly hair and dark skin, the Semang are sometimes called "Negritos".

As an ethnonym, "Maniq" is used not only in relation to the Khao Banthad Semang groups but also to closely-related groups living further south nearby the border with Malaysia. As a language name, however, it is unambiguously referring to the language of the group under study.

Current estimates of the population are within the range of 240-300 speakers. Maniq groups are very dynamic – they often merge or split up depending on the availability of food and other factors.

Maniq speakers are hunter-gatherers traditionally leading a nomadic or a semi-nomadic lifestyle. They also partially rely on the Thai economy (goods exchange, occasional waged labor, tourists) and therefore maintain contact with the outside world. Some groups, however, from time to time retreat into the "deep forest" and stay in isolation for an extended period of time.

Publications

• Anong, C. and S. Chanthachon, 2009. The ethnic manni sakai: Guidelines for social and cultural revival for living together in Southern Thailand. The Social Sci., 4: 478-482.
• Bauer, Christian. 1991. Kensiw: a Northern Aslian language of southern Thailand. In Surin Pookajorn (ed.) Preliminary report of excavations at Moh-Khiew Cave, Krabi Province, Sakai Cave, Trang Province and ethnoarchaeological research of hunter-gatherer group, socall ‘Sakai’ or ‘Semang’ at Trang Province, 310-335. Bangkok: Silpakorn University, Faculty of Archaeology.
• Benjamin, Geoffrey. (in press). The current situation of the Aslian languages In Hein Steinhauer and James T. Collins (eds.) Endangered languages of Southeast Asia. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.
• Benjamin, Geoffrey. 2002. On being tribal in the Malay world. In Tribal Communities in the Malay World. ed. Geoffrey Benjamin and Cynthia Chou.
• Bishop, Nancy M. and Mary M. Peterson. 1993. Maniq language survey report.‭ Bangkok: Thammasat University. ii, 75 p.
• Bishop, Nancy M. & Mary M. Peterson. 2002. The Kensiw (Maniq) people. In TU-SIL-LRDP Committee (ed.), Minority language orthography in Thailand: five case studies, 53-68. Bangkok, Thailand: TU-SIL-LRDP Committee.
• Bishop, Nancy M. & Mary M. Peterson. 2003. Northern Aslian language Survey: Trang, Satul and Phatthalung provinces, Thailand.‭ Bangkok, Thailand : TU-SIL-LRDP Thammasat University. iii, 231 p. http://msea-ling.info/dt-library/libronline.shtml
• Burenhult, Niclas. Forthc. Foraging and the history of languages in the Malay Peninsula. In Historical linguistics and hunter-gatherer populations in global perspective, ed. Tom Güldeman, Patrick McConvell, and Richard Rhodes.
• Dunn, M., Burenhult, N., Kruspe, N., Becker, N., & Tufvesson, S. (in press). Aslian linguistic prehistory: A case study in computational phylogenetics. Diachronica.
• Hamilton, Annette. 2001. State’s margins, people’s centre: space and history in the southern Thai jungles. Nomadic Peoples 5: 89-103.
• Hamilton, Annette. 2002. Tribal people on the Southern Thai border: Internal Colonialism, Minorities and the State. In Tribal Communities in the Malay World ed. Geoffrey Benjamin and Cynthia Chou.
• Hamilton, Annette. 2006. Reflections on the ‘disappearing Sakai’: a tribal minority in southern Thailand. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 37.2: 293-314.
• Lukas, Helmut. 2004. Can 'They' save 'Us', the Foragers? Indonesian and Thai Hunter-Gatherer Cultures under Threat from Outside. Austrian Studies in Social Anthropology on Southeast Asia. Südostasien Working Papers, Volume 2.
• Nagata, Shuichi. 2006. Subgroup ‘names’ of the Sakai (Thailand) and the Semang (Malaysia): a literature survey. Anthropological Science 114: 45-57.
• Phaiboon Duangchan. 2006. The northern Aslian languages of southern Thailand. Mon-Khmer Studies 36: 207-224.
• Schebesta, Paul. 1925. The Semangs of Patalung. Man 25: 23-6.

Photos

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