Andamanese languages

The Andamanese languages form a language family spoken by the Andamanese indigenous peoples in the Andaman Islands, a union territory of India. There are two recognized subfamilies, Great Andamanese and South Andamanese. The Great Andamanese languages are further divided into Central and Northern groups. All of the Great Andamanese languages except Pucikwar became extinct in the 20th century; as the few-surviving individuals of indigenous Great Andamanese descent inter-married with Karen (Burmese) and Indian settlers, their linguistic and tribal distinctions were lost and these few dozen today are primarily speakers of Hindi. The South Andamanese languages survive mainly because of the greater isolation of the peoples who speak them, reinforced by the extreme reluctance and outright hostility they have long maintained towards outside contact (particularly true of the Sentinelese and Jarawa).

Grammar

The Andamanese languages are quite agglutinative, with an extensive prefix and suffix system. Possibly their most distinctive characteristic is a 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 association); thus, for instance, the "aka-" at the beginning of so many Andamanese languages' names is actually the 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 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-beri-nga "clever" (hand-good); ig-beri-nga "sharp-sighted" (eye-good); aka-beri-nga "quick language learner" (tongue-good.) Another peculiarity of terms for body parts is that they are inalienably possessed, requiring a possessive pronoun prefix to complete them, so one cannot say "head" alone, but only "my, or his, or your, etc. head".

Related Topics:
Agglutinative - Noun class - Noun - Adjective - Prefix - Tongue - Cushion - Sponge - Cane - Stick - Pencil - Tree - Limb - Inalienably possessed - Possessive pronoun

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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):

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The South Andamanese pronouns are rather different; we cite Onge here:

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Judging from the available sources, the Andamanese languages have only two cardinal numbers: one and two. However, curiously enough, they have at least six ordinal numbers. This gap in the vocabulary was remedied where necessary by the use of sign language.

Related Topics:
Cardinal number - One - Two - Ordinal number - Sign language

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