Bea | |
---|---|
Aka-Bea | |
Native to | India |
Region | Andaman Islands; South Andaman island except northeast coast, and north and east interiors; Rutland island except south coast; small islands southeast of Rutland; Labyrinth Islands. |
Extinct | By 1931 [1] |
Great Andamanese
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
abj |
abj.html | |
Glottolog |
akab1249 |
The Bea language, Aka-Bea, [2] is an extinct Great Andamanese language of the Southern [3] group. It was spoken around the western Andaman Strait and around the northern and western coast of South Andaman.
The Bea were one of the indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, one of the ten or so Great Andamanese 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. [1]
The Great Andamanese languages are agglutinative languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system. [4] They have a distinctive noun class system based largely on body parts, in which every noun and adjective may take a 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. [4] An adjectival example can be given by the various forms of yop, "pliable, soft", in Aka-Bea: [4]
Similarly, beri-nga "good" yields:
The prefixes are,
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 inalienably possessed, requiring a possessive adjective 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):
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 numbers — one and two — and their entire numerical lexicon is one, two, one more, some more, and all. [4]
The following poem in Aka-Bea was written by a chief, Jambu, after he was freed from a six-month jail term for manslaughter. [5]
Literally:
Translation:
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 in Oko-Juwoi, reminiscent of Prometheus:
Kuro-t'on-mik-a
Kuro-t'on-mik-in
Mom
Mr.
Mirit-la,
Pigeon,
Bilik
God
l'ôkô-ema-t,
?-slep-t,
peakar
wood
at-lo
fire-with
top-chike
stealing-was
at
fire
laiche
the.late
Lech-lin
Lech-to
a,
he,
kotik
then
a
he
ôko-kodak-chine
?-fire-make-did
at-lo
fire-with
Karat-tatak-emi-in.
Karat-tatak-emi-at.
Mr. Pigeon stole a firebrand at Kuro-t'on-mika, while God was sleeping. He gave the brand to the late Lech, who then made fires at Karat-tatak-emi. (Translated by Portman)
The Oko-Juwoi of Middle Andaman and the Aka-Bea of South Andaman and Rutland Island were extinct by 1931.
Bea | |
---|---|
Aka-Bea | |
Native to | India |
Region | Andaman Islands; South Andaman island except northeast coast, and north and east interiors; Rutland island except south coast; small islands southeast of Rutland; Labyrinth Islands. |
Extinct | By 1931 [1] |
Great Andamanese
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
abj |
abj.html | |
Glottolog |
akab1249 |
The Bea language, Aka-Bea, [2] is an extinct Great Andamanese language of the Southern [3] group. It was spoken around the western Andaman Strait and around the northern and western coast of South Andaman.
The Bea were one of the indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, one of the ten or so Great Andamanese 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. [1]
The Great Andamanese languages are agglutinative languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system. [4] They have a distinctive noun class system based largely on body parts, in which every noun and adjective may take a 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. [4] An adjectival example can be given by the various forms of yop, "pliable, soft", in Aka-Bea: [4]
Similarly, beri-nga "good" yields:
The prefixes are,
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 inalienably possessed, requiring a possessive adjective 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):
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 numbers — one and two — and their entire numerical lexicon is one, two, one more, some more, and all. [4]
The following poem in Aka-Bea was written by a chief, Jambu, after he was freed from a six-month jail term for manslaughter. [5]
Literally:
Translation:
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 in Oko-Juwoi, reminiscent of Prometheus:
Kuro-t'on-mik-a
Kuro-t'on-mik-in
Mom
Mr.
Mirit-la,
Pigeon,
Bilik
God
l'ôkô-ema-t,
?-slep-t,
peakar
wood
at-lo
fire-with
top-chike
stealing-was
at
fire
laiche
the.late
Lech-lin
Lech-to
a,
he,
kotik
then
a
he
ôko-kodak-chine
?-fire-make-did
at-lo
fire-with
Karat-tatak-emi-in.
Karat-tatak-emi-at.
Mr. Pigeon stole a firebrand at Kuro-t'on-mika, while God was sleeping. He gave the brand to the late Lech, who then made fires at Karat-tatak-emi. (Translated by Portman)
The Oko-Juwoi of Middle Andaman and the Aka-Bea of South Andaman and Rutland Island were extinct by 1931.