Global General

Ancient language dies with death of last speaker

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-02-05 15:05

NEW DELHI: The world has lost an ancient language with the death of the last speaker of "Bo" in India's Andaman Islands at the age of 85, an Indian official said Friday.

"Boa Sr, who died on January 28 here, was suffering from old age health ailments for sometime. She was the oldest member of the Great Andamanese tribe," Tribal Health Deputy Director R.C. Kar told the media.

According to leading linguist Professor Anvita Abbi, the death of Boa Sr of a unique tribe in the Andamans also led to the tragic demise of the world's oldest languages -- Bo.

"After the death of her parents, Boa was the last Bo speaker for 30 to 40 years. She was often very lonely and had to learn an Adamanese version of Hindi in order to communicate with people. But throughout her life she had a very good sense of humor and her smile and full-throated laughter were infectious," said Abbi.

Bo is now an extinct Great Andamanese language. According to some linguists, it may have been related to languages spoken in Neolithic times and was one of the world's oldest languages.

Languages in the Andamans -- one of the most linguistically diverse areas of the world -- are thought to originate from Africa. Some may be 70,000 years old.