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{{short description|Extinct Great Andamanese language}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Kora
|nativename=''Aka-Kora''
|states=[[India]]
|region=[[Andaman Islands]]; northeast and north central coasts of North Andaman Island, Smith Island
|ethnicity=[[Kora people|Kora]]
|extinct=November 2009, with the death of Boro
|ref=<ref name=Boro/>
|familycolor=Andamanese
|fam1=[[Great Andamanese languages|Great Andamanese]]
|fam2=Northern
|iso3=ack
|glotto=akak1251
|glottorefname=Akakora
|map=Schematic Map of Andamanese Languages & Tribes.png
}}

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

It has been extinct since November 2009 when its last speaker, Boro, died.<ref name=Boro>{{cite news |title=Andamanese tribes, languages die |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article100977.ece |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=February 5, 2010 |access-date=2010-02-05 }}</ref>

==Name==
The native name for the language was '''''Aka-Kora''''', also spelled '''''Aka-Khora''''' or '''''Aka-Cora''''' ('''''Aka-''''' being a prefix for "tongue"); and this name is often used for the tribe itself. They were divided between shore-dwellers (''aryoto'') and forest-dwellers (''eremtaga'') subtribes.<ref name="weber8"/>

==History==
By the time of the establishment of the first permanent colonial settlement at Port Blair (1858), the estimates size of the Kora tribe was about 500 individuals, out of perhaps 3500 Great Andamanese.<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 the tribe was discovered only much later, in the work leading to the 1901 census.<ref name="weber7"/> Like other [[Andamanese people]]s, the Kora were decimated during colonial and post-colonial times, by diseases, [[Alcoholic drinks|alcohol]], [[opium]] and loss of territory. The census of 1901 recorded 96 individuals, which decreased to 71 in 1911, 48 in 1921, and 24 in 1931.<ref name="weber7"/>

In 1949, any remaining Kora were relocated, with all other surviving Great Andamanese, to a reservation on [[Bluff Island (Andaman)|Bluff island]].<ref name="mann"/> In 1969 they were relocated 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 one person claimed to be a Kora member,<ref name="weber8">George Weber (~2009), ''[http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter8/text8.htm The Tribes] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130507061710/http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter8/text8.htm |date=2013-05-07 }}''. Chapter 8 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> and 1994 the Kora tribe no longer existed as a separate unit.<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> Although descendants of the Kora were still living in the Great Andamanese reservation of [[Strait Island]] as of 2006, they identified themselves as members of other tribes, mainly [[Jeru people|Jeru]].<ref name="abbiweb">[[Anvita Abbi]] (2006), ''[http://www.andamanese.net/generalia.html Great Andamanese Community]'' in ''[http://www.andamanese.net/index.html VOGA - Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese]''. Accessed on 2012-07-12.</ref> The last known speaker of the Kora language died in November 2009.<ref name="abbiweb"/> They were 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"/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Andamanese languages}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andamanese, Aka-Kora, Language}}
[[Category:2009 disestablishments]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]
[[Category:Great Andamanese languages]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of Asia]]
[[Category:Languages of India]]
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 2000s]]

Aka-Kora language - Revision history

imported>Tubesleveret15 at 09:03, 2 June 2021