Akabo dialect

Last updated
Bo
Aka-Bo
Native to India
Region Andaman Islands; east central coast of North Andaman island, North Reef island.
Ethnicity Bo people
Extinct 26 January 2010, with the death of Boa Sr. [1] [2]
Great Andamanese
Language codes
ISO 639-3 akm
akm.html
Glottolog akab1248
ELP Aka-Bo
Languages and dialects of the Andaman Islands at British contact.png

Akabo, or Bo (also known as Ba) is an extinct dialect of the Northern Andamanese language. It was spoken on the west central coast of North Andaman [3] 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. [4]

Contents

Name

The Aka- at the beginning of the language name is a common Great Andamanese prefix for words related to the tongue, which includes language. [5]

History

The original size of the Bo tribe, by 1858 has been estimated at 200 individuals. [6] However, they were discovered by the colonial authorities only later, in the work leading to the 1901 census. [6] Like other Andamanese peoples, the Bo were decimated during colonial and post-colonial times, by diseases, alcohol, opium and loss of territory. The census of 1901 recorded only 48 individuals. [7] Census takers were told that an epidemic had come from the neighboring Kari and Kora tribes, and the Bo had resorted to killing all of their own who showed symptoms. [6] Their number was up to 62 in 1911, but then decreased to 16 in 1921 and only 6 in 1931. [6]

In 1949, any remaining Bo were relocated, with all other surviving Great Andamanese, to a reservation on Bluff island. In 1969 they were moved again to a reservation on Strait Island. [8] By 1980 only three out of the 23 surviving Great Andamanese claimed to belong to the Bo tribe. By 1994 their numbers had grown to 15 (out of 40). [7]

However, tribal identities became largely symbolic in the wake of the relocations. By 2006 the cultural and linguistic identity of the tribe had all but disappeared, due to intermarriage and other factors. The last speaker of the Bo language, a woman named Boa Senior, died at age 85 in late January, 2010. [1] [2]

Extinction

Boa Sr., the last person who remembered any Bo, [9] died on 26 January 2010, at the age of approximately 85. [10]

Boa Sr.'s mother, who died approximately forty years before her death, was the only living speaker of Bo for a long time. Other members of the Great Andamanese speech community had difficulty understanding the songs and narratives which she knew in Bo. [11] She also spoke the Andamanese dialect of Hindi, as well as Great Andamanese, a mix of the ten indigenous languages of Andamans.

Boa Sr. worked with Anvita Abbi, a professor of linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, since 2005. Abbi studied and recorded Boa's language and songs. [11]

Boa Sr. died at a hospital in Port Blair on 26 January 2010. [1] Boa Sr., who was approximately 85 years old, was the oldest living member of the Great Andamanese tribes at the time. [12] Boa Sr.'s death left just 52 [1] surviving Great Andamanese people in the world, none of whom remembers any Bo. Their population is greatly reduced from the estimated 5,000 Great Andamanese living in the Andaman Islands at the time of the arrival of the British in 1858. [1]

Stephen Corry, director of the British-based NGO Survival International, issued a statement saying, "With the death of Boa Sr. and the extinction of the Bo language, a unique part of human society is now just a memory. Boa's loss is a bleak reminder that we must not allow this to happen to the other tribes of the Andaman Islands." [13] Linguist Narayan Choudhary also explained what the loss of Boa Sr. meant in both academic and personal terms, "Her loss is not just the loss of the Great Andamanese community, it is a loss of several disciplines of studies put together, including anthropology, linguistics, history, psychology, and biology. To me, Boa Sr. epitomised a totality of humanity in all its hues and with a richness that is not to be found anywhere else."

Grammar

The Great Andamanese languages are agglutinative languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system. [5] 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. [5] An adjectival example can be given by the various forms of yop, "pliable, soft", in Aka-Bea: [5]

Similarly, beri-nga "good" yields:

The prefixes are:

BeaBalawa?Bajigyâs?JuwoiKol
head/heartot-ôt-ote-ôto-ôto-
hand/footong-ong-ong-ôn-ôn-
mouth/tongueâkà-aka-o-ókô-o-
torso (shoulder to shins)ab-ab-ab-a-o-
eye/face/arm/breasti-, ig-id-ir-re-er-
back/leg/buttar-ar-ar-ra-a-
waistôto-

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, myd-we, ourm-
thou, thyŋ-you, yourŋ-
he, his, she, her, it, itsathey, theirl-

'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. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andamanese languages</span> Languages spoken by people of the Andaman Islands

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opucikwar dialect</span> Extinct language of the Andaman Islands, India

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 the Opucikwar dialect closely related to the Okol dialect. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akabea language</span> Extinct Great Andamanese language of India

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akabale language</span> Extinct Southern Great Andamanese of India

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ongan languages</span> Family of two Andamanese languages

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Andamanese languages</span> Nearly extinct language family of the Andaman Islands

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akakede language</span> Extinct Great Andamanese language of India

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Okol dialect</span> Extinct Great Andamanese language of India

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Okojuwoi language</span> Extinct Great Andamanese language of India

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akachari dialect</span> Extinct Great Andamanese language

Akachari, or Cari, is an extinct dialect of the Northern Andamanese language that was spoken by the Cari people, one of a dozen Great Andamanese peoples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akajeru dialect</span> Nearly extinct Great Andamanese language

Jeru, or Akajeru, is a moribund dialect of the Northern Andamanese language, and the last surviving variety of the Great Andamanese language family. Jeru was spoken in the interior and south coast of North Andaman and on Sound Island. A koiné of the Northern Andamanese dialects, based principally on Akajeru, was once spoken on Strait Island; the last semi-fluent speaker of this, Nao Jr., died in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akakhora dialect</span> Extinct Great Andamanese language

Akakhora, or Kora (Cora), is an extinct dialect of the Northern Andamanese language. It was spoken on the northeast and north central coasts of North Andaman and on Smith Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jarawa language (Andaman Islands)</span> Language of India

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bo people (Andaman)</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kora people</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anvita Abbi</span> Indian linguist and scholar

Professor Anvita Abbi is an Indian linguist and scholar of minority languages, known for her studies on tribal languages and other minority languages of South Asia. In 2013, she was honoured with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award by the Government of India for her contributions to the field of linguistics.

Northern Andamanese is the critically endangered native language of North Andaman Island. It is closely related to Akakede and seems to have consisted of four mutually intelligible dialects: Akachari (Cari), Akakhora (Kora), Akabo (Bo), and Akajeru (Jeru). Jeru is the only one with speakers remaining.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 (2010) Language lost as last member of Andaman tribe dies . The Daily Telegraph, London, 5 February 2010. Accessed on 2010-02-22.
  2. 1 2 (2011) "Lives Remembered". The Daily Telegraph , London, 10 February 2010. Accessed on 2010-02-22. Also on web.archive.org
  3. ↑ Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred R. (1922). The Andaman Islanders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  4. ↑ Zamponi, Raoul; Comrie, Bernard (2021). A grammar of Akajeru: fragments of a traditional North Andamanese dialect (PDF). Grammars of world and minority languages. London: UCL Press. ISBN   978-1-80008-093-5.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 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.
  6. 1 2 3 4 George Weber (~2009), Numbers Archived May 31, 2012, at the Wayback Machine . Chapter 7 in The Andamanese Archived 2012-08-05 at the Wayback Machine . Accessed on 2012-07-12.
  7. 1 2 A. N. Sharma (2003), Tribal Development in the Andaman Islands , page 62. Sarup & Sons, New Delhi.
  8. ↑ Rann Singh Mann (2005), Andaman and Nicobar Tribes Restudied: Encounters and Concerns, page 149. Mittal Publications. ISBN   81-8324-010-0
  9. ↑ "GA Community". Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese (VOGA). Archived from the original on October 23, 2010. Retrieved 2011-01-21.
  10. ↑ "Obituary for Boa Sr". Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese (VOGA). Archived from the original on 10 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-05.
  11. 1 2 "People of Great Andamanese". Andamanese.net. 2009-02-22. Archived from the original on February 8, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-14.
  12. ↑ "Language lost as last member of Andaman tribe dies". The Daily Telegraph . 2010-02-05. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
  13. ↑ Watt, Jonathan (2010-02-04). "Ancient tribal language becomes extinct as last speaker dies". The Guardian . Retrieved 2010-02-22.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.