Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Ancient tribal language becomes extinct as last speaker dies
Guardian.co.uk ^ | 4 Feb 2010 | Jonathan Watts

Posted on 02/05/2010 1:17:19 AM PST by cold start

Death of Boa Sr, last person fluent in the Bo language of the Andaman Islands, breaks link with 65,000-year-old culture

The last speaker of an ancient tribal language has died in the Andaman Islands, breaking a 65,000-year link to one of the world's oldest cultures.

Boa Sr, who lived through the 2004 tsunami, the Japanese occupation and diseases brought by British settlers, was the last native of the island chain who was fluent in Bo.

Taking its name from a now-extinct tribe, Bo is one of the 10 Great Andamanese languages, which are thought to date back to pre-Neolithic human settlement of south-east Asia.

Though the language has been closely studied by researchers of linguistic history, Boa Sr spent the last few years of her life unable to converse with anyone in her mother tongue.

Even members of inter-related tribes were unable to comprehend the repertoire of Bo songs and stories uttered by the woman in her 80s, who also spoke Hindi and another local language.

"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," Narayan Choudhary, a linguist of Jawaharlal Nehru University who was part of an Andaman research team, wrote on his webpage. "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."

The Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, are governed by India. The indigenous population has steadily collapsed since the island chain was colonised by British settlers in 1858 and used for most of the following 100 years as a colonial penal colony.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: andamanislands; andamanlanguage; austronesian; bo; coconut; coconuts; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; india; indonesia; language; northsentinelisland
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-35 last
To: cold start

Bo! How does it go ..

“Bee bye bo-perly

Banana, fana bo-panna ...”


21 posted on 02/05/2010 3:49:25 AM PST by FroggyTheGremlim
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: James C. Bennett

Thank you for your honesty. I love it when we can tell the truth about a person or a group and it pisses others off.
Think about, when we say a fact or truth and that is considered hurtful or biased, oh my. Keep on dude.


22 posted on 02/05/2010 4:18:12 AM PST by Doulos1 (Bitter Clinger Forever)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: cold start

This is like lamenting the passing of an old computer language.


23 posted on 02/05/2010 4:26:02 AM PST by qwertypie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Talisker
Congratulations - that was the shortest, most contemptuous, biased, dismissive and ignorant reference to a tribal population I've ever read.

Don't get your loincloth in a wad, dude.

24 posted on 02/05/2010 4:31:05 AM PST by qwertypie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: James C. Bennett
That event proved an unlikely Rorschach test. Libs, being libs, interpreted the Andaman Islander's attack on the government helicopter as "Hey! Don't forget us."

Most, if not all, on Freerepublic correctly interpreted the message as "Stay the 'f' away!"

25 posted on 02/05/2010 4:43:34 AM PST by Oratam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Rome2000
In honor of things Bo:


26 posted on 02/05/2010 4:56:50 AM PST by Lockbar (March toward the sound of the guns.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Talisker

Whoa! Ease up FRiend! Many FReepers know that the locals shot at a helicopter with bows and arrows a year or two ago. This is common knowledge for the well-informed.


27 posted on 02/05/2010 5:01:43 AM PST by vladimir998 (Part of the Vast Catholic Conspiracy (hat tip to Kells))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: qwertypie

Old computer languages never die; they just Eastern European programmers.


28 posted on 02/05/2010 6:47:35 AM PST by dangus (Nah, I'm not really Jim Thompson, but I play him on FR.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

if only Boa Sr had gone to the local Best Buy and bought a tape recorder...


29 posted on 02/05/2010 7:17:00 AM PST by isom35
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Talisker
Andaman and Nicobar are the islands where the native tribals shoot arrows at Indian Navy helicopters which bring in food and water for them.

Congratulations - that was the shortest, most contemptuous, biased, dismissive and ignorant reference to a tribal population I've ever read.

Actually, I heard that they were drunk on firewater at the time too, and had bones in their noses.

30 posted on 02/05/2010 10:08:10 AM PST by I Buried My Guns
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: cold start

RIP.


31 posted on 02/05/2010 12:57:29 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: caddie

Bo knows football.


32 posted on 02/05/2010 2:21:56 PM PST by WOBBLY BOB (ACORN:American Corruption for Obama Right Now)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: WayneS

Exactly. Then we’d always know the Bo word for “head lice”. And instead of standing around shooting arrows at planes, maybe the menfolk should have spent some time coming up with the wheel.


33 posted on 02/05/2010 2:29:55 PM PST by Deb (Beat him, strip him and bring him to my tent!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: WOBBLY BOB

LOL!


34 posted on 02/05/2010 5:08:46 PM PST by caddie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: James C. Bennett

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·

 
Gods
Graves
Glyphs
Thanks! I missed your ping yesterday, along with at least one other one, so I'm just adding this topic to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. Thanks again. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

·Dogpile · Archaeologica · LiveScience · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society ·
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google ·
· The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·


35 posted on 02/06/2010 6:26:49 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Happy New Year! Freedom is Priceless.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-35 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson