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{{Infobox language
|name=Pucikwar
|nativename=''A-Pucikwar''
|states=[[India]]
|region=[[Andaman Islands]]; Straight Island.
|ethnicity=[[Pucikwar people]]
|extinct=between 1931 and 1951
|ref=<ref name="vanDriem2001"/>
|familycolor=Andamanese
|fam1=[[Great Andamanese languages|Great Andamanese]]
|fam2=Central
|iso3=apq
|glotto=apuc1241
|glottorefname=Apucikwar
|map=Schematic Map of Andamanese Languages & Tribes.png
}}

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 languages|Great Andamanese family]].

==History==
As the colonisation and settlement process of the Andaman Islands intensified from the late 19th century and into the 20th century, the [[indigenous peoples|indigenous]] [[Great Andamanese]] groups were greatly reduced in number and became alienated from their traditional territories. The few surviving Great Andamanese soon lost the cultural and linguistic distinctions among them that were present at the onset of the 19th century, when at least ten distinct tribal and linguistic groups were recorded.
By the 1901 census, the Pucikwar were reduced to 50,<ref name="gob">A. N. Sharma (2003), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=WEztW7c0CqQC&pg=PA75 Tribal Development in the Andaman Islands]'', page 75. Sarup & Sons, New Delhi.</ref> but distinctions between tribal groups and subgroups had become considerably blurred (and some intermarriage had also occurred with Indian and [[Karen people|Karen (Burmese)]] settlers).
The Pucikwar tribe disappeared as a distinct group sometime after 1931.<ref name="vanDriem2001">{{Citation | title=Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region : Containing an Introduction to the Symbiotic Theory of Language | author=George van Driem | date=2001 | publisher=BRILL | isbn=90-04-12062-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fiavPYCz4dYC | quote=''... The Aka-Kol tribe of Middle Andaman became extinct by 1921. The Oko-Juwoi of Middle Andaman and the Aka-Bea of South Andaman and Rutland Island were extinct by 1931. The Akar-Bale of Ritchie's Archipelago, the Aka-Kede of Middle Andaman and the A-Pucikwar of South Andaman Island soon followed. By 1951, the census counted a total of only 23 Greater Andamanese and 10 Sentinelese. That means that just ten men, twelve women and one child remained of the Aka-Kora, Aka-Cari and Aka-Jeru tribes of Greater Andaman and only ten natives of North Sentinel Island ...''}}</ref>

==Grammar==
The Great Andamanese languages are [[agglutinative]] languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system.<ref name=Templ>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.</ref> They have a distinctive [[noun class]] system based largely on body parts, in which every [[noun]] and [[adjective]] may take a [[Prefix (linguistics)|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]].<ref name="Templ"/> An adjectival example can be given by the various forms of ''yop'', "pliable, soft", in Aka-Bea:<ref name="Templ"/>
*A [[cushion]] or [[sponge]] is ''ot-yop'' "round-soft", from the prefix attached to words relating to the head or heart.
*A [[Walking stick|cane]] is ''ôto-yop'', "pliable", from a prefix for long things.
*A [[wikt:stick|stick]] or [[pencil]] is ''aka-yop'', "pointed", from the tongue prefix.
*A fallen [[tree]] is ''ar-yop'', "rotten", from the prefix for [[Limb (anatomy)|limb]]s 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,

{| class=wikitable
! !!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 [[Inalienable possession|inalienably possessed]], requiring a [[possessive adjective]] [[Prefix (linguistics)|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):
{| class=wikitable
| 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 number (linguistics)|cardinal number]]s — [[1 (number)|one]] and [[2 (number)|two]] — and their entire numerical lexicon is one, two, one more, some more, and all.<ref name="Templ"/>

==See also==
*[[Andamanese languages]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Andamanese languages}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Great Andamanese languages]]
[[Category:Languages of India]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of Asia]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 20th century]]

A-Pucikwar language - Revision history

>Citation bot at 07:34, 7 January 2021