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{{Short description|Extinct Great Andamanese language}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Bo
|nativename=Aka-Bo
|states=[[India]]
|region=[[Andaman Islands]]; east central coast of North Andaman island, North Reef island.
|ethnicity=[[Bo people (Andaman)|Bo people]]
|extinct= 26 January 2010, with the death of [[Boa Sr.]]
|ref=<ref name=telegraph/><ref name=telegraph2/>
|familycolor=Andamanese
|fam1=[[Great Andamanese languages|Great Andamanese]]
|fam2=Northern
|iso3=akm
|glotto=akab1248
|glottorefname=Akabo
|map=Schematic Map of Andamanese Languages & Tribes.png
}}

The '''Bo language''', '''''Aka-Bo''''' (also known as ''Ba''), was a [[Great Andamanese languages|Great Andamanese]] language. It was spoken on the west central coast of [[North Andaman]]<ref name=Brown>Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred R. (1922). ''The Andaman Islanders''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</ref> and on North Reef Island of the [[Andaman Islands]] in [[India]].

==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.<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>

==History==
The original size of the Bo tribe, by 1858 has been estimated at 200 individuals.<ref name="weber7">George Weber (~2009), ''[http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter7/text7.htm Numbers] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531230544/http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter7/text7.htm |date=May 31, 2012 }}''. Chapter 7 in ''[http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/text-group-BodyChapters.htm The Andamanese] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805204050/http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/app-a/a-portman.htm |date=2012-08-05 }}''. Accessed on 2012-07-12.</ref> However, they were discovered by the colonial authorities only later, in the work leading to the 1901 census.<ref name="weber7"/> Like other [[Andamanese people]]s, the Bo were decimated during colonial and post-colonial times, by diseases, [[Alcoholic drinks|alcohol]], [[opium]] and loss of territory. The census of 1901 recorded only 48 individuals.<ref name="gob"/> Census takers were told that an epidemic had come from the neighboring [[Kari people|Kari]] and [[Kora people|Kora]] tribes, and the Bo had resorted to killing all of their own who showed symptoms.<ref name="weber7"/> Their number was up to 62 in 1911, but then decreased to 16 in 1921 and only 6 in 1931.<ref name="weber7"/>

In 1949, any remaining Bo were relocated, with all other surviving Great Andamanese, to a reservation on [[Bluff Island (Andaman)|Bluff island]]. In 1969 they were moved again to a reservation on Strait Island.<ref name="mann">Rann Singh Mann (2005), [https://books.google.com/books?id=FPX6wiuZ3ikC&pg=PA149 Andaman and Nicobar Tribes Restudied: Encounters and Concerns], page 149. Mittal Publications. {{ISBN|81-8324-010-0}}</ref>
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).<ref name="gob">A. N. Sharma (2003), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=WEztW7c0CqQC&pg=PA62 Tribal Development in the Andaman Islands]'', page 62. Sarup & Sons, New Delhi.</ref>

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 Sr.|Boa Senior]], died at age 85 in late January, 2010.<ref name=telegraph>(2010) ''[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/7161422/Language-lost-as-last-member-of-Andaman-tribe-dies.html Language lost as last member of Andaman tribe dies]''. The Daily Telegraph, London, 5 February 2010. Accessed on 2010-02-22.</ref><ref name=telegraph2>(2011) [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/7207731/Lives-Remembered.html "Lives Remembered"]. ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', London, 10 February 2010. Accessed on 2010-02-22. Also [https://web.archive.org/web/20100213125406/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/7207731/Lives-Remembered.html on web.archive.org]</ref>

===Extinction===

[[Boa Sr.]], the last person who remembered any Bo,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.andamanese.net/generalia.html|title=GA Community|publisher=Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese (VOGA)|access-date=2011-01-21}}</ref> died on 26 January 2010, at the age of approximately 85.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.andamanese.net/BoaSr_Obituary.html|title=Obituary for Boa Sr.|publisher=Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese (VOGA)|access-date=2010-02-05| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100210000858/http://www.andamanese.net/BoaSr_Obituary.html| archive-date= 10 February 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref>

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.<ref name="andamanese1">{{cite web|url=http://www.andamanese.net/generalia.htm |title=People of Great Andamanese |publisher=Andamanese.net |date=2009-02-22 |access-date=2010-05-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100208214255/http://www.andamanese.net/generalia.htm |archive-date=February 8, 2010 }}</ref> 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, Delhi|Jawaharlal Nehru University]] in [[Delhi]], since 2005. Abbi studied and recorded Boa's language and songs.<ref name="andamanese1"/>

Boa Sr. died at a hospital in [[Port Blair]] on 26 January 2010.<ref name=telegraph/> Boa Sr., who was approximately 85 years old, was the oldest living member of the Great Andamanese tribes at the time.<ref>{{cite news|title=Language lost as last member of Andaman tribe dies |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/7161422/Language-lost-as-last-member-of-Andaman-tribe-dies.html|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=2010-02-05 |access-date=2010-02-22}}</ref> Boa Sr.'s death left just 52<ref name=telegraph/> 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.<ref name=telegraph/>

[[Stephen Corry]], director of the [[United Kingdom|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."<ref name=guardian>{{cite news|first=Jonathan|last=Watt|title=Ancient tribal language becomes extinct as last speaker dies |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/04/ancient-language-extinct-speaker-dies|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=2010-02-04 |access-date=2010-02-22}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Templ/> 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"/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8498534.stm BBC Report on Aka-Bo and the Bo Language death, with recording]
* [https://archive.org/stream/rosettaproject_akm_swadesh-1/akm.txt Aka-Bo Swadesh List by The Rosetta Project at the Internet Archive]
* [https://asjp.clld.org/languages/AKA_BO Aka-Bo word list at the ASJP Database]

{{Andamanese languages}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andamanese, Aka-Bo, Language}}
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]
[[Category:Great Andamanese languages]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of Asia]]
[[Category:Languages of India]]
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 2010s]]
[[Category:2010 disestablishments in India]]

Aka-Bo language - Revision history

CleanupBot II at 18:02, 13 August 2023