What language family do the Nicobarese languages belong to?

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Cinque Islands, Andaman and Nicobar Islands — Andaman and Nicobar Islands Andaman redwood trees in the Cinque Islands, south of Rutland Island, in the southern Andamans, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India.

The Nicobarese languages belong to the Mon-Khmer language group, which is a branch of the Austroasiatic language family.12

While they were once considered a distinct family within the Austroasiatic stock, more recent research classifies them as a specific branch of the Mon-Khmer family. These languages are spoken by the indigenous inhabitants of the Nicobar Islands and are typically categorized into four groups: North Nicobar, Central Nicobar, South Nicobar, and Inland Great Nicobar.1