Aka-Kora language
| Kora | |
|---|---|
| Aka-Kora | |
| Native to | India |
| Region | Andaman Islands; northeast and north central coasts of North Andaman Island, Smith Island |
| Ethnicity | Kora |
| Extinct | November 2009, with the death of Boro[1] |
Great Andamanese
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ack |
ack.html | |
| Glottolog | akak1251 |
| ELP | Aka-Kora |
 | |
The Kora (Cora) language, Aka-Kora, is an extinct
It has been extinct since November 2009 when its last speaker, Boro, died.[1]
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.[2]
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.[3] However the tribe was discovered only much later, in the work leading to the 1901 census.
In 1949, any remaining Kora were relocated, with all other surviving Great Andamanese, to a reservation on
By 1980 only one person claimed to be a Kora member,
Grammar
The Great Andamanese languages are
- 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-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,
| 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
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
References
- ^ a b "Andamanese tribes, languages die". The Hindu. February 5, 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-05.
- ^ a b George Weber (~2009), The Tribes Archived 2013-05-07 at the Wayback Machine. Chapter 8 in The Andamanese Archived 2012-08-05 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed on 2012-07-12.
- ^ a b c George Weber (~2009), Numbers Archived May 31, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Chapter 7 in The Andamanese Archived 2012-08-05 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed on 2012-07-12.
- ^ ISBN 81-8324-010-0
- ^ A. N. Sharma (2003), Tribal Development in the Andaman Islands, page 75. Sarup & Sons, New Delhi.
- ^ a b Anvita Abbi (2006), Great Andamanese Community in VOGA - Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese. Accessed on 2012-07-12.
- ^ "List of notified Scheduled Tribes" (PDF). Census India. p. 27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 November 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ a b c d 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.