{{Short description|Extinct Great Andamanese language of India}}{{Cleanup lang|date=April 2025|iso=abj}}{{Infobox language | name = Bea | nativename = {{lang|abj|Aka-Bea}} | states = 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 = 1920s | ref = <ref name=":0" /> | familycolor = Andamanese | fam1 = Great Andamanese | fam2 = Southern | iso3 = abj | linglist = abj.html | glotto = akab1249 | glottorefname = Akabea | altname = Bojigyab, Bôjingîjîda | map = Languages_and_dialects_of_the_Andaman_Islands_at_British_contact.png | mapcaption = {{legend|#fea500|Aka-Bea}} | ethnicity = Bea }}
The '''Bea language''', '''''Aka-Bea''''',<ref>also Beada ~ Biada or Bogijiab ~ Bojigniji ~ Bojigyab</ref> also called '''Bojigyab''',<ref>{{Cite web |title=Andamanese Languages |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095411491?p=emailAuoKDOz0i0WyA&d=/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095411491 |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en |doi=10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095411491?p=emailauokdoz0i0wya&d=/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095411491| doi-broken-date=1 July 2025 }}</ref> is an extinct Great Andamanese language of the Southern<ref name=Manoh1>Manoharan, S. (1983). "Subgrouping Andamanese group of languages." ''International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics'' XII(1): 82-95.</ref> group. It was spoken around the western Andaman Strait and around the northern and western coast of South Andaman. It was well documented in the late 19th century, but died out in the 1920s. The term {{Lang|abj|Aka-Bea}} was used both to name the language and the people who spoke it, derived from the prefix {{Lang|abj|aka-}}, used to name objects related to the tongue, and {{Lang|abj|bea}}, meaning 'spring-water'.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Zamponi |first1=Raoul |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/41657 |title=A grammar of Akabea |last2=Comrie |first2=Bernard |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-885579-8 |location=New York}}</ref>
==History== 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 between 1921 and 1931.<ref name="vanDriem2001">{{Citation | title=Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region : Containing an Introduction to the Symbiotic Theory of Language | author=George van Driem | date=2001 | publisher=BRILL | isbn=90-04-12062-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fiavPYCz4dYC | quote=''The Oko-Juwoi of Middle Andaman and the Aka-Bea of South Andaman and Rutland Island were extinct by 1931.''}}</ref><ref name=":0" />
== Phonology ==
=== Consonants === {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! colspan="2" | ! Labial ! Dental ! Alveolar ! Retroflex ! Palatal ! Velar |- ! rowspan="3" | Plosive ! {{small|voiceless}} | {{IPA link|p}} | {{IPA link|t̪|t}} | | {{IPA link|ʈ}} | | {{IPA link|k}} |- ! {{small|aspirated}} | | {{IPA link|t̪ʰ|tʰ}} | | | | |- ! {{small|voiced}} | {{IPA link|b}} | {{IPA link|d̪|d}} | | {{IPA link|ɖ}} | |{{IPA link|ɡ}} |- ! rowspan="2" |Affricate !{{small|voiceless}} | | | | |{{IPA link|tʃ}}{{Efn|{{IPA|[s]}} occurs as an optional and idiosyncratic realization of word-final {{IPA|/tʃ/}}, as well as in non-final positions.<ref name=":0" />}} | |- !{{small|voiced}} | | | | |{{IPA link|dʒ}} | |- ! colspan="2" | Nasal | {{IPA link|m}} | | {{IPA link|n}} | | {{IPA link|ɲ}} | {{IPA link|ŋ}} {{IPA link|ŋʲ}} |- ! colspan="2" | Fricative | | | | | | |- ! colspan="2" | Rhotic | | | {{IPA link|r}} |{{IPA link|ɽ}} | | |- ! colspan="2" | Approximant | {{IPA link|w}} | |{{IPA link|l}} | | {{IPA link|j}} | |}
==== Notes ====
{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} === Vowels === {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! !! Front!!Central!!Back |- ! Close |{{IPA link|i}} {{IPA link|iː}} | |{{IPA link|u}} {{IPA link|uː}} |- !Close-mid |{{IPA link|e}} {{IPA link|eː}} | |{{IPA link|o}} {{IPA link|oː}} |- !Open-mid |{{IPA link|ɛ}} {{IPA link|ɛː}} | |{{IPA link|ɔ}} {{IPA link|ɔː}} |- !Open | |{{IPA link|a}} {{IPA link|aː}} | |}
==Grammar== The Great Andamanese languages, including Aka-Bea, are agglutinative languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system.<ref name="Templ">{{Cite book |last=Temple |first=Richard C. |url=https://digital.soas.ac.uk/content/AA/00/00/05/19/00001/PDF.pdf |title=A Grammar of the Andanamese Languages. Being Chapter IV of Part I of the Census Report of the Andanaman and Nicobar Islands. |date=1902 |publisher=Port Blair: Superintendent's Printing Press}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Templ"/> An adjectival example can be given by the various forms of ''yop'', "pliable, soft:<ref name="Templ"/> *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 {{Lang|abj|aka-yop}}, "pointed", from the tongue prefix. *A fallen tree is {{Lang|abj|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,
{| class=wikitable ! !!Bea !!Bojigyab |- !head/heart | ot- ||ote- |- !hand/foot |ong- ||ong- |- !mouth/tongue |âkà- ||o- |- !torso (shoulder to shins) |ab- ||ab- |- !eye/face/arm/breast |i-, ig- ||ir- |- !back/leg/butt |ar- ||ar- |- !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; with the Aka-Bea forms given below: {| class=wikitable | 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-''.
=== Numerals === 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.<ref name="Templ" /> Akabea has been analyzed as an anumeric language, where words analyzed as numerals actually do not refer to specific quantities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zamponi |first1=Raoul |last2=Comrie |first2=Bernard |title=Akabea (Great Andamanese) as an anumeric language, and the problem of Akabea ordinals |url=https://www.academia.edu/120181191 |journal=Italian Journal of Linguistics |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=3–28}}</ref>
==Sample texts==
The following poem in Aka-Bea was written by a chief, ''Jambu'', after he was freed from a six-month jail term for manslaughter.<ref>Man, E.H. (1923). ''Dictionary of the South Andaman Language''. British India Press: Bombay</ref>
: ''ngô:do kûk l'àrtâ:lagî:ka,'' : ''mō:ro el:ma kâ igbâ:dàla'' : ''mō:ro el:mo lê aden:yarà'' :: ''pō:-tōt läh.'' : Chorus: ''aden:yarà pō:-tōt läh.''
Literally:
: thou heart-sad art, : sky-surface to there looking while, : sky-surface of ripple to looking while, :: bamboo spear on lean-dost.
Translation:
: Thou art sad at heart, : gazing there at the sky's surface, : gazing at the ripple on the sky's surface, :: leaning on the bamboo spear.
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.
== See also == *Andamanese languages
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Andamanese languages}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Andamanese, Aka-Bea, Language}} Category:Agglutinative languages Category:Great Andamanese languages Category:Extinct languages of Asia Category:Languages of India Category:Languages extinct in the 1930s