>Rsjaffe at 00:35, 22 May 2021

2021-05-22T00:35:47Z

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{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Cari
|altname=Sare
|nativename=''Aka-Cari''
|pronunciation=
|states=India
|region=[[Andaman Islands]]; north coast of North Andaman Island, Landfall Island, other nearby small islands.
|ethnicity=[[Cari people|Cariar]]
|extinct=4 April 2020
|ref=<ref name="gob"/>
|familycolor=Andamanese
|fam1=[[Great Andamanese languages|Great Andamanese]]
|fam2=Northern
|iso3=aci
|glotto=akac1240
|glottorefname=Akacari
|map=Schematic Map of Andamanese Languages & Tribes.png
}}

The '''Cari''' (occasionally "Kari"), '''Chariar''' or '''Sare''' language, also known as '''''Aka-Cari''''', is an extinct [[Great Andamanese languages|Great Andamanese]] language, of the Northern group, which was spoken by the [[Cari people]], one of a dozen [[Great Andamanese people]]s.<ref name="ethin">{{Cite web |url=http://www.christusrex.org/www3/ethno/Inda.html |title=Ethnologue India |access-date=12 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100715202610/http://www.christusrex.org/www3/ethno/Inda.html |archive-date=15 July 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref><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=31 May 2012 }}''. Chapter 7 of [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=5 August 2012 }}. Accessed on 12 July 2012.</ref><ref name="Abbi2009">{{cite journal|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222414027|title=Is Great Andamanese genealogically and typologically distinct from Onge and Jarawa?|last=Abbi|first=Anvita|journal=Language Sciences|volume=31|issue=6|pages=791–812|year=2009|doi=10.1016/j.langsci.2008.02.002}}</ref>

In the 19th century the Cari lived on the north coast of [[North Andaman]] and on [[Landfall Island|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]]. By 2021, both had died.<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>

==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.<ref name="weber7"/>
Like other [[Andamanese people]]s, the Cari were decimated during colonial and post-colonial times, by diseases, [[alcohol (drug)|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.<ref name="gob"/>

In 1949 any remaining Cari were relocated, together with all other surviving Great Andamanese, to a reservation on [[Bluff Island (Andaman)|Bluff island]]; and then again in 1969 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 1994, the tribe was reduced to only two women, aged 57 and 59, and therefore was on its way to extinction.<ref name="gob"/> The last speaker, a woman called Licho, died from chronic tuberculosis on 4 April 2020 in Shadipur, [[Port Blair]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=International|first=Survival|date=1 June 2020|title=The last speaker of the Sare language has died|url=https://medium.com/@survivalinternational/the-last-speaker-of-the-sare-language-has-died-767013159e83|access-date=28 June 2020|website=Medium|language=en}}</ref>

They are a designated [[Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes|Scheduled Tribe]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://censusindia.gov.in/Tables_Published/SCST/ST%20Lists.pdf |page=27 |title=List of notified Scheduled Tribes |publisher=Census India |access-date=15 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131107225208/http://censusindia.gov.in/Tables_Published/SCST/ST%20Lists.pdf |archive-date=7 November 2013 }}</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 ==
* [[Great Andamanese language]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://archive.org/stream/rosettaproject_aci_swadesh-1/aci.txt Aka-Cari Swadesh List]

{{Andamanese languages}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andamanese, Aka-Cari, Language}}
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]
[[Category:Great Andamanese languages]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of Asia]]
[[Category:Languages of India]]
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 20th century]]

Aka-Cari language - Revision history

>Rsjaffe at 00:35, 22 May 2021