Aka-Jeru language

The Jeru language, Aka-Jeru (also known as Yerawa, not to be confused with Järawa), is a moribund Great Andamanese language, of the Northern group. Jeru was spoken in the interior and south coast of North Andaman and on Sound Island. A koiné of Aka-Jeru and other northern Great Andamanese languages was once spoken on Strait Island; the last semi-fluent speaker of this, Nao Jr., died in 2009. Aka-Jeru is the last surviving member of the Great Andamanese languages. According to a grammar on Aka-Jeru, it and Aka-Cari are dialects of a singular language, with lexical correspondency between the two at 93%.

Jeru
Aka-Jeru
Native to	India
Region	Andaman Islands; interior and south North Andaman island, Sound island. Presently Strait Island
Ethnicity	Jeru
Native speakers	3 (2020)
Language family	Great Andamanese Northern Jeru
Language codes
ISO 639-3	akj
Linguist List	akj.html
Glottolog	akaj1239

History

As the numbers of Great Andamanese progressively declined over the succeeding decades, the various Great Andamanese tribes either disappeared altogether or became amalgamated through intermarriage. By 1994, the 38 remaining Great Andamanese who could trace their ancestry and culture back to the original tribes belonged to only three of them (Jeru, Bo, and Cari).

The resulting Great Andamanese language was based on Jeru or a creole based on several languages, of which Jeru was a primary component. The last fluent speaker, Nao, died in 2009.

Phonology

Consonants

Aka-Jeru has the following consonants:

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		ʈ		k
	voiceless aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		ʈʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d		ɖ
Affricate	voiceless					tʃ
	voiced					dʒ
Fricative
Rhotic				r
Approximant				l		j

Vowels

Aka-Jeru has the following vowels:

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː			u	uː
Close-mid	e	eː			o	oː
Open-mid	ɛ	ɛː			ɔ	ɔː
Open			a	aː

Grammar

See Great Andamanese languages for more general grammatical description.

Great Andamanese koiné

Mixed Great Andamanese
Great Andamanese koiné
Native to	India
Region	Strait Island
Ethnicity	60 (2020)
Extinct	last semi-fluent speaker, Nao Jr., died in 2009
Language family	Mixed Khora–Bo–Jeru–Sare on a Jeru base
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gac
Glottolog	mixe1288
ELP	Mixed Great Andamanese

Great Andamanese koiné is based primarily on Jeru, with lexical and grammatical influence from other North Great Andamanese languages (Aka-Bo, Aka-Kora and Aka-Cari). It is a head-marking polysynthetic and agglutinative language with a SOV pattern. It has a very elaborate system for marking inalienability, with seven possessive markers reflecting different body-divisions. These markers appear as proclitics that classify a large number of nouns as dependent categories. It is proposed that the Great Andamanese conceptualise their world through these interdependencies and thus the grammar encodes this important phenomenon in every grammatical category expressing referential, attributive and predicative meaning.

Phonology

Vowels

The Great Andamanese koiné has a seven-vowel system.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

Consonants

Consonants

		Labial	Dental /Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	ʈ	tʃ	k
	voiceless aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	ʈʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d	ɖ	dʒ
Fricative			s		ʃ
Trill			ɾ
Approximant		w	l		j

Vocabulary

PGA varnamala

Koiné vocabulary:

Gloss	Great Andamanese	IPA	Devanagari
nest	aaracha	araca	आराचा
housefly	ijibu	iɟibu	ईजीबू
snake (king cobra)	ulukhu	ulukʰu	ऊलूखू
chilli	ekajira	ekaɟira	एकाजीरा
deer	airen	ɛren	ऐरेन
fishing net	ocho	oco	ओचो
axe	aulo	ɔlo	औलो
snail	kalatop	kalaʈɔp	कालाटौप
dugong	kauroing	kɔrɔiɲ	कौरौईञ
coconut	khider	kʰider	खीदेर
road	ngorto	ŋɔrtɔ	ङौरतौ
betelnut	chaum	cɔm	चौम
dolphin	choa	coa	चोआ
bat	jibet	ɟibeʈ	जीबेट
fish	nyure	ɲure	ञूरे
heron	taka	ʈaka	टाका
tongue	thatat	ʈʰatat	ठातात
sunset	diu	ɖiu	डीऊ
black pig	dirim raa	ɖirim raː	डीरीम राऽ
leaf	taich	tɔc	तौच
dew	thun	tʰun	थून
scorpion	dikiraseni	dikiraseni	दीकीरासेनी
mosquito	nipho	nipʰo	नीफो
mushroom	pata	pata	पाता
crow	phatkaa	pʰaʈka	फाटका
frog	phorube	pʰorube	फोरूबे
rope	pharako	pʰarako	फाराको
green turtle	belotauro	beloʈɔrɔ	बेलोटौरौ
grey pigeon	mirit	mirit	मीरीत
rooster	maucho	mɔcɔ	मौचौ
strewn leaves	yephaay taich	jepʰaːj tɛc	येफाऽय तैच
bamboo	rat	rɛʈ	रैट
tusked male pig	ratairlauto	ratɛrlɔto	रातैरलौतो
smoke	lep	lep	लेप
fire	luro, wuro	luro, wuro	लूरो, वूरो
waist jewellery	shirbele	ʃirbele	शीरबेले
snake	shubi	ʃubi	शूबी
crocodile	sarekateyo	sarekatejo	सारेकातेयो
White-bellied Sea-Eagle	karatchom	karaʈcom	करटचोम
Pacific Golden Plover	chelele	cɛlele	चैलेले
Oriental Honey Buzzard	taulom-tut-bio	ʈɔlom-tut-bio	टौलोम-तूत-बीओ
Whimbrel	chautot	cɔʈoʈ	चौटोट

• Column in yellow denotes loanword derived from Hindi

Grammatical features

With respect to the Great Andamanese family, the use of proclitics in Great Andamanese language shows how the language family is unique in such a way that the body division markers that appear as proclitics pervade the entire grammatical system of the language, a fact not shared by any other known language of the world so far.

Seven basic zones in the partonomy of the body and grammaticalisation process in PGA

Classes	Partonomy of human body	Body division markers	Verbs	Adjectives	Adverbs
1	mouth and its semantic extension	a=	mouth-related activity, origin, e.g. a=ɟire 'abuse', a=kopho 'sprout'	mouth-related attributive quality of a person, e.g. a=mu 'mute', a=tutlup 'greedy'	deictic meaning of front or back, anteriority of an action, e.g. a=karap 'behind', a=kaulu 'prior to'
2	major external body parts	ɛr=	activity in which the front part of the body is involved. e.g. er=luk 'weigh'	attribute of size, external beauty, e.g. er=buŋoi 'beautiful'	deictic meaning of adjacency, uncontrollable actions/emotions, e.g. er=betto:ʃo 'adjacent to/near X', er=achil 'surprised'
3	extreme ends of the body like toes and fingernails	oŋ=	hand-related activity, action to do with extremities of body, e.g. oŋ=cho 'stitch', oŋ=tuɟuro 'trembling of hands'	attributes related to limbs, e.g. oŋ=karacay 'lame', 'handicapped', oŋ=toplo 'alone'	Indicating manner, e.g. oŋ=kocil 'fast', 'hurriedly'
4	bodily products and part-whole relationship	ut=	directional, away from the ego, experiential, e.g. ut=cone 'leave', ut=ʈheʈhe-bom 'be hungry'	attributive quality of an X after a part is taken out of it, e.g. ut=lile 'decay', ut=lɔkho 'bare'	emerging out of something, deictic meaning of 'towards X', e.g. ot=le, 'seaward' ot=bo 'backwards'
5	organs inside the body	e=, ɛ=	internalised action, when the effect of an action can be seen on the object, or experienced, e.g. e=lɛco 'suck', ɛ=rino 'tear'	inherent attribute of X, e.g. e=sare 'salty', ɛ=bɛn 'soft'	deictic meaning of 'in the middle of X' e.g. te=khil, e=kotra 'inside'
6	parts designating round shape/sexual organs	ara=	action that involves side or middle portion of the body, e.g. ara=ɖelo 'be pregnant'	attribute of size, 'time' and belly-related, e.g. ara=pheʈkhetɔ 'big bellied', ara=kaʈa 'stout/dwarf'	deixis of immediate vertical or horizontal space, e.g. ara=balo 'behind X', tara=tal 'right under X'
7	parts for legs and related terms	o= ~ ɔ=	action which results in roundish object or in a definite result, e.g. o=cɔrno 'make nest', o=beo 'sting'	external attribute of an X, shape or structure, e.g. o=baloŋ 'round', o=phelala 'slippery'	temporal deixis relating to 'sun rise' or directional deixis, e.g. o=ʈɔ: 'day break', o=kara 'sunset'

Great Andamanese place names

Islands

Contemporary place name	Present Great Andamanese place name
Andaman Islands	Marakele
South Andaman Island	Sorobul
Little Andaman	Ilumu Tauro
Strait Island	Khringkosho
Havelock Island (Swaraj Island)	Thi Lar Siro
Interview Island	Bilikhu Taraphong
Neill Island (Shaheed Island)	Tebi Shiro
Baratang Island	Boa
Bluff Island	Lurua
Landfall Island	Mauntenga

Places

Port Blair	Laotara Nyo
Diglipur	Thitaumul
Mayabunder	Rait Phor

Sample text

The following is a sample text in Present Great Andamanese, in Devanagari, the Latin script, and IPA.

कूरोतोनमीका

Kuro-t'on-mika

kurot̪onmikɑ

मोम

mom

mom

मीरीतलाऽ,

miritlaa,

mirit̪lɑː,

बीलीक

bilik

bilik

लौकौएमात,

laukoemat,

lɔkɔemɑt̪,

पेआकार

peakar

peɑkɑr

आतलो

aatlo

ɑt̪lo

तोपछीके

topchhike

topcʰike

आत

aat

ɑt

लैचे

laiche

lɑice

लेछलीन

lechhlin

lecʰlin

आ,

aa,

ɑ,

कोतीक

kotik

kot̪ik

आ

aa

ɑ

औकौकोडाऽकछीने

aukaukodaakchhine

ɔkɔkodɑːkcʰine

आतलो

aatlo

ɑt̪lo

कारातताऽताकेमीऽन।

Karat-tatak-emin.

kɑrɑt̪t̪ɑːt̪ɑkemiːn.

कूरोतोनमीका मोम मीरीतलाऽ, बीलीक लौकौएमात, पेआकार आतलो तोपछीके आत लैचे लेछलीन आ, कोतीक आ औकौकोडाऽकछीने आतलो कारातताऽताकेमीऽन।

Kuro-t'on-mika mom miritlaa, bilik laukoemat, peakar aatlo topchhike aat laiche lechhlin aa, kotik aa aukaukodaakchhine aatlo Karat-tatak-emin.

kurot̪onmikɑ mom mirit̪lɑː, bilik lɔkɔemɑt̪, peɑkɑr ɑt̪lo topcʰike ɑt lɑice lecʰlin ɑ, kot̪ik ɑ ɔkɔkodɑːkcʰine ɑt̪lo kɑrɑt̪t̪ɑːt̪ɑkemiːn.

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-emin.

Bibliography

• Raoul Zamponi. 2022. A Grammar of Akajeru : Fragments of a Traditional North Andamanese Dialect.

External links

• Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese- VOGA
• Aka-Jeru language- Omniglot