Aka-Cari language

Cari
Cari
Sare
Aka-Cari
Native to	India
Region	Andaman Islands; north coast of North Andaman Island, Landfall Island, other nearby small islands.
Ethnicity	Cariar
Extinct	4 April 2020, with the death of Licho
Language family	Great Andamanese Northern Cari; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	aci
Linguist List	aci.html
Glottolog	akac1240

Last updated August 21, 2024

The Cari (occasionally "Kari"), Chariar or Sare language, also known as Aka-Cari, is an extinct Great Andamanese language, of the Northern group, which was spoken by the Cari people, one of a dozen Great Andamanese peoples.^[2]^[3]^[4]

In the 19th century the Cari lived on the north coast of North Andaman and on Landfall and other nearby small islands. By 1994 the population had been reduced to two women aged over 50 living with the other few surviving Great Andamanese on Strait Island. Aka-Cari became extinct with the death of Licho in April 2020.^[5]^[6]^[1]

History

The Cari population at the time of first European contacts (in the 1790s) has been estimated at 100 individuals, out of perhaps 3500 Great Andamanese.^[3] Like other Andamanese peoples, the Cari were decimated during colonial and post-colonial times, by diseases, alcohol, colonial warfare and loss of territory. The population was down to 39 individuals in the 1901 census, falling to 36 in 1911, 17 in 1921, and 9 in 1931.^[1]

In 1949 any remaining Cari were relocated, together with all other surviving Great Andamanese, to a reservation on Bluff island; and then again in 1969 to a reservation on Strait Island.^[7]

By 1994, the tribe was reduced to only two women, aged 57 and 59, and therefore was on its way to extinction.^[1] The last speaker, a woman called Licho, died from chronic tuberculosis on 4 April 2020 in Shadipur, Port Blair.^[8]

They are a designated Scheduled Tribe.^[9]

Grammar

The Great Andamanese languages are agglutinative languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system.^[10] They have a distinctive noun class system based largely on body parts, in which every noun and adjective may take a prefix according to which body part it is associated with (on the basis of shape, or functional association). Thus, for instance, the *aka- at the beginning of the language names is a prefix for objects related to the tongue.^[10] An adjectival example can be given by the various forms of yop, "pliable, soft", in Aka-Bea:^[10]

A cushion or sponge is ot-yop "round-soft", from the prefix attached to words relating to the head or heart.
A cane is ôto-yop, "pliable", from a prefix for long things.
A stick or pencil is aka-yop, "pointed", from the tongue prefix.
A fallen tree is ar-yop, "rotten", from the prefix for limbs or upright things.

Similarly, beri-nga "good" yields:

un-bēri-ŋa "clever" (hand-good).
ig-bēri-ŋa "sharp-sighted" (eye-good).
aka-bēri-ŋa "good at languages" (tongue-good.)
ot-bēri-ŋa "virtuous" (head/heart-good)

The prefixes are,

	Bea	Balawa?	Bajigyâs?	Juwoi	Kol
head/heart	ot-	ôt-	ote-	ôto-	ôto-
hand/foot	ong-	ong-	ong-	ôn-	ôn-
mouth/tongue	âkà-	aka-	o-	ókô-	o-
torso (shoulder to shins)	ab-	ab-	ab-	a-	o-
eye/face/arm/breast	i-, ig-	id-	ir-	re-	er-
back/leg/butt	ar-	ar-	ar-	ra-	a-
waist	ôto-

Body parts are inalienably possessed, requiring a possessive adjective prefix to complete them, so one cannot say "head" alone, but only "my, or his, or your, etc. head".

The basic pronouns are almost identical throughout the Great Andamanese languages; Aka-Bea will serve as a representative example (pronouns given in their basic prefixal forms):

I, my	d-	we, our	m-
thou, thy	ŋ-	you, your	ŋ-
he, his, she, her, it, its	a	they, their	l-

'This' and 'that' are distinguished as k- and t-.

Judging from the available sources, the Andamanese languages have only two cardinal numbers — one and two — and their entire numerical lexicon is one, two, one more, some more, and all.^[10]

Related Research Articles

The Andamanese languages are the various languages spoken by the indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. There are two known Andamanese language families, Great Andamanese and Ongan, as well as two presumed but unattested languages, Sentinelese and Jangil.

The Pucikwar language, A-Pucikwar, is an extinct language of the Andaman Islands, India, formerly spoken by the Pucikwar people on the south coast of Middle Andaman, the northeast coast of South Andaman, and on Baratang Island. It belonged to the Great Andamanese family.

The Pucikwar were one of the indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, one of the ten or so Great Andamanese tribes identified by British colonials in the 1860s. They spoke a distinctive Pucikwar language (A-Pucikwar) closely related to the other Great Andamanese languages. The tribe disappeared as a distinct group sometime after 1931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Andamanese</span> Indigenous people in the Andaman Islands

The Great Andamanese are an indigenous people of the Great Andaman archipelago in the Andaman Islands. Historically, the Great Andamanese lived throughout the archipelago, and were divided into ten major tribes. Their distinct but closely related languages comprised the Great Andamanese languages, one of the two identified Andamanese language families.

The Jangil were one of the Indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands in India. They lived in the interior of Rutland Island, and were given the name Rutland Jarawa because it was supposed that they were related to the neighboring Jarawa people.

The Bea language, Aka-Bea, is an extinct Great Andamanese language of the Southern group. It was spoken around the western Andaman Strait and around the northern and western coast of South Andaman.

The Bale language, Akar-Bale, is an extinct Southern Great Andamanese language once spoken in the Andaman Islands in Ritchie's Archipelago, Havelock Island, and Neill Island.

Ongan, also called Angan, South Andamanese or Jarawa–Onge, is a phylum which comprises two attested Andamanese languages spoken in the southern Andaman Islands.

The Great Andamanese languages are a nearly extinct language family once spoken by the Great Andamanese peoples of the northern and central Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, and part of the Andamanese sprachbund.

The Kede language, Aka-Kede, is an extinct Great Andamanese language, of the Northern group. It was spoken in the Northern section of Middle Andaman island.

The Kol language, Aka-Kol, is an extinct Great Andamanese language, of the Central group. It was spoken in the southeast section of Middle Andaman.

The Juwoi language, Oko-Juwoi, is an extinct Great Andamanese language, of the Central group. It was spoken in the west central and southwest interior of Middle Andaman.

The Bo language, Aka-Bo, was a Great Andamanese language. It was spoken on the west central coast of North Andaman and on North Reef Island of the Andaman Islands in India. It was recorded as being mutually intelligible with Aka-Jeru, and the vocabularies are very similar.

The Jeru language, Aka-Jeru, is a moribund Great Andamanese language, of the Northern group. Jeru was spoken in the interior and south coast of North Andaman and on Sound Island. A koiné of Aka-Jeru and other northern Great Andamanese languages was once spoken on Strait Island; the last semi-fluent speaker of this, Nao Jr., died in 2009. Aka-Jeru is the last surviving member of the Great Andamanese languages. According to a grammar on Aka-Jeru, it and Aka-Cari are dialects of a singular language, with lexical correspondency between the two at 93%.

The Kora (Cora) language, Aka-Kora, is an extinct Great Andamanese language, of the Northern group. It was spoken on the northeast and north central coasts of North Andaman and on Smith Island.

Järawa or Jarwa is one of the Ongan languages. It is spoken by the Jarawa people inhabiting the interior and south central Rutland Island, central interior, and south interior South Andaman Island, and the west coast of Middle Andaman Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boa Sr</span> Last fluent speaker of Aka-Bo (c. 1925 – 2010)

Boa Sr was an Indian Great Andamanese elder. She was the last person fluent in the Aka-Bo language.

The Bo was one of the ten Indigenous tribes of the Great Andamanese people, originally living on the western coast of North Andaman Island in the Indian Ocean.

The Kora, Khora or Cora were one of the ten Indigenous tribes of the Great Andamanese people, originally living on the eastern part of North Andaman Island in the Indian Ocean. The tribe is now extinct, although some of the remaining Great Andamanese on Strait Island claim to have Kora ancestors.

The Kari, Cari, or Chariar were one of the ten indigenous Great Andamanese peoples, originally living on the northernmost part of North Andaman Island and on Landfall Island in the Indian Ocean.

References

1 2 3 4 A. N. Sharma (2003), Tribal Development in the Andaman Islands , page 62. Sarup & Sons, New Delhi.
↑ "Ethnologue India". Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
1 2 George Weber (~2009), Numbers Archived 31 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine . Chapter 7 of The Andamanese Archived 5 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine . Accessed on 12 July 2012.
↑ Abbi, Anvita (2009). "Is Great Andamanese genealogically and typologically distinct from Onge and Jarawa?". Language Sciences. 31 (6): 791–812. doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2008.02.002.
↑ Abbi, Anvita (30 April 2020). "The Pandemic Also Threatens Endangered Languages". scientificamerican.com. Scientific American. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
↑ "Remembering Licho, the Last Speaker of the Sare Language". terralingua.org. 30 April 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
↑ Rann Singh Mann (2005), Andaman and Nicobar Tribes Restudied: Encounters and Concerns, page 149. Mittal Publications. ISBN 81-8324-010-0
↑ International, Survival (1 June 2020). "The last speaker of the Sare language has died". Medium. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
↑ "List of notified Scheduled Tribes" (PDF). Census India. p. 27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 November 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
1 2 3 4 Temple, Richard C. (1902). A Grammar of the Andamanese Languages, being Chapter IV of Part I of the Census Report on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Superintendent's Printing Press: Port Blair.

External links

Aka-Cari Swadesh List

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[gob-1] 1 2 3 4 A. N. Sharma (2003), Tribal Development in the Andaman Islands , page 62. Sarup & Sons, New Delhi.

[ethin-2] "Ethnologue India". Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. Retrieved 12 July 2012.

[weber7-3] 1 2 George Weber (~2009), Numbers Archived 31 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine . Chapter 7 of The Andamanese Archived 5 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine . Accessed on 12 July 2012.

[Abbi2009-4] Abbi, Anvita (2009). "Is Great Andamanese genealogically and typologically distinct from Onge and Jarawa?". Language Sciences. 31 (6): 791–812. doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2008.02.002.

[5] Abbi, Anvita (30 April 2020). "The Pandemic Also Threatens Endangered Languages". scientificamerican.com. Scientific American. Retrieved 24 January 2023.

[6] "Remembering Licho, the Last Speaker of the Sare Language". terralingua.org. 30 April 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2023.

[mann-7] Rann Singh Mann (2005), Andaman and Nicobar Tribes Restudied: Encounters and Concerns, page 149. Mittal Publications. ISBN 81-8324-010-0

[8] International, Survival (1 June 2020). "The last speaker of the Sare language has died". Medium. Retrieved 28 June 2020.

[9] "List of notified Scheduled Tribes" (PDF). Census India. p. 27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 November 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.

[Templ-10] 1 2 3 4 Temple, Richard C. (1902). A Grammar of the Andamanese Languages, being Chapter IV of Part I of the Census Report on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Superintendent's Printing Press: Port Blair.

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