The Kora (Cora) language, ''Aka-Kora'', is an extinct 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.

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.

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.George Weber (~2009),
Numbers
''. Chapter 7 in

''. Accessed on 2012-07-12. However the tribe was discovered only much later, in the work leading to the 1901 census. Like other Andamanese peoples, the Kora were decimated during colonial and post-colonial times, by diseases,

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

and loss of territory. The census of 1901 recorded 96 individuals, which decreased to 71 in 1911, 48 in 1921, and 24 in 1931. In 1949, any remaining Kora were relocated, with all other surviving Great Andamanese, to a reservation on

Bluff island Bluff Island may refer to the following islands: *Bluff Island (Andaman and Nicobar Islands) *Bluff Island (Antarctica), Prydz Bay, Antarctica *Bluff Island (Hong Kong) Bluff Island, indigenously known as Sha Tong Hau Shan (), also known as Ung Kon ...

. In 1969 they were relocated again to a reservation on Strait Island.Rann Singh Mann (2005)
Andaman and Nicobar Tribes Restudied: Encounters and Concerns
page 149. Mittal Publications. By 1980 only one person claimed to be a Kora member,George Weber (~2009),

''. Chapter 8 in

''. Accessed on 2012-07-12. and 1994 the Kora tribe no longer existed as a separate unit.A. N. Sharma (2003),
Tribal Development in the Andaman Islands
', page 75. Sarup & Sons, New Delhi. Although descendants of the Kora were still living in the Great Andamanese reservation of

Strait Island Strait Island is an island of the Andaman Islands. It belongs to the North and Middle Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The island lies north from Port Blair. History Strait ...

as of 2006, they identified themselves as members of other tribes, mainly Jeru.

Anvita Abbi Professor Anvita Abbi (born 9 January 1949) is an Indian linguist and scholar of minority languages, known for her studies on tribal languages and other minority languages of South Asia. In 2013, she was honoured with the Padma Shri, the fourth ...

(2006),
Great Andamanese Community
' in

'. Accessed on 2012-07-12. The last known speaker of the Kora language died in November 2009. They were a designated Scheduled Tribe.

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 limbs 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.

References

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