The Bea language, ''Aka-Bea'', is an extinct

Great Andamanese The Great Andamanese are an indigenous people of the Great Andaman archipelago in the Andaman Islands. Historically, the Great Andamanese lived throughout the archipelago, and were divided into ten major tribes. Their distinct but closely relate ...

language of the SouthernManoharan, S. (1983). "Subgrouping Andamanese group of languages." ''International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics'' XII(1): 82-95. group. It was spoken around the western Andaman Strait and around the northern and western coast of South Andaman.

History

The Bea were one of the indigenous peoples of the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

, one of the ten or so

tribes identified by British colonials in the 1860s. Their language was closely related to the other Great Andamanese languages. They were extinct as a distinct people by 1931.

Grammar

The Great Andamanese languages are agglutinative languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system.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. They have a distinctive noun class system based largely on body parts, in which every noun and adjective may take a

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...

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. An adjectival example can be given by the various forms of ''yop'', "pliable, soft", in Aka-Bea: *A cushion or sponge is ''ot-yop'' "round-soft", from the prefix attached to words relating to the head or heart. *A cane is ''ôto-yop'', "pliable", from a prefix for long things. *A

stick Stick or the stick may refer to: Thin elongated objects * Twig * The weapon used in stick fighting * Walking stick, a device to facilitate balancing while walking * Shepherd's crook * Swagger stick * Digging stick * Swizzle stick, used to stir d ...

or pencil is ''aka-yop'', "pointed", from the tongue prefix. *A fallen tree is ''ar-yop'', "rotten", from the prefix for

limb Limb may refer to: Science and technology *Limb (anatomy), an appendage of a human or animal *Limb, a large or main branch of a tree *Limb, in astronomy, the curved edge of the apparent disk of a celestial body, e.g. lunar limb *Limb, in botany, ...

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, Body parts are inalienably possessed, requiring a possessive adjective

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): 'This' and 'that' are distinguished as ''k-'' and ''t-''. Judging from the available sources, the Andamanese languages have only two cardinal numbers —

one 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

and two — and their entire numerical lexicon is one, two, one more, some more, and all.

Samples

The following poem in Aka-Bea was written by a

chief Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...

, ''Jambu'', after he was freed from a six-month

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

term for

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

.Man, E.H. (1923). ''Dictionary of the South Andaman Language''. British India Press: Bombay : ''ngô:do kûk l'àrtâ:lagî:ka,'' : ''mō:ro el:ma kâ igbâ:dàla'' : ''mō:ro el:mo lê aden:yarà'' :: ''pō:-tōt läh.'' : Chorus: ''aden:yarà pō:-tōt läh.'' Literally: : thou heart-sad art, : sky-surface to there looking while, : sky-surface of ripple to looking while, :: bamboo spear on lean-dost. Translation: : Thou art sad at heart, : gazing there at the sky's surface, : gazing at the ripple on the sky's surface, :: leaning on the bamboo spear. Note, however, that, as seems to be typical of Andamanese poetry, the words and sentence structure have been somewhat abbreviated or inverted in order to obtain the desired rhythmical effect. As another example, we give part of a

creation myth A creation myth (or cosmogonic myth) is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it., "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop ...

in Oko-Juwoi, reminiscent of Prometheus:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andamanese, Aka-Bea, Language Agglutinative languages Great Andamanese languages Extinct languages of Asia Languages of India Languages extinct in the 1930s

History

Grammar

Samples

See also

References