Akacari

{{Short description|Extinct Great Andamanese language}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}{{Distinguish||text=the Kapriman language, also called Sare}} {{Infobox language | name = Cari | altname = Sare | nativename = {{lang|aci|Aka-Cari}} | pronunciation = | states = India | region = Andaman Islands; north coast of North Andaman Island, Landfall Island, other nearby small islands. | ethnicity = Cariar | extinct = 4 April 2020, with the death of Licho | ref = <ref name="gob"/> | familycolor = Andamanese | fam1 = Great Andamanese | fam2 = Northern Andamanese – Kede | fam3 = Northern Andamanese | iso3 = aci | linglist = aci.html | glotto = akac1240 | glottorefname = Akacari | map2 = Lang Status 01-EX.svg | map = Languages_and_dialects_of_the_Andaman_Islands_at_British_contact.png | mapcaption = {{legend|#a449d5|Aka-Cari}} }}

'''Akachari''', or '''Cari''' (occasionally 'Kari', 'Chariar' or 'Sare'), is an extinct dialect of the Northern Andamanese language that was spoken by the Cari people, one of the dozen Great Andamanese peoples.<ref name="ethin">{{Cite web |url=http://www.christusrex.org/www3/ethno/Inda.html |title=Ethnologue India |access-date=12 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100715202610/http://www.christusrex.org/www3/ethno/Inda.html |archive-date=15 July 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="weber7">George Weber (~2009), ''[http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter7/text7.htm Numbers] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531230544/http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter7/text7.htm |date=31 May 2012 }}''. Chapter 7 of [http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/text-group-BodyChapters.htm The Andamanese] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805204050/http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/app-a/a-portman.htm |date=5 August 2012 }}. Accessed on 12 July 2012.</ref><ref name="Abbi2009">{{cite journal|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222414027|title=Is Great Andamanese genealogically and typologically distinct from Onge and Jarawa?|last=Abbi|first=Anvita|journal=Language Sciences|volume=31|issue=6|pages=791–812|year=2009|doi=10.1016/j.langsci.2008.02.002}}</ref>

In the 19th century, the Cari lived on the north coast of North Andaman, as well as on Landfall Island and other nearby small islands. By 1994, the population had been reduced to two women aged over 50, living with the other few surviving Great Andamanese on Strait Island. Aka-Cari became extinct with the death of Licho in April 2020.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Pandemic Also Threatens Endangered Languages|url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/the-pandemic-also-threatens-endangered-languages/|website=scientificamerican.com|publisher=Scientific American|last=Abbi|first=Anvita|date=30 April 2020|access-date=24 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Remembering Licho, the Last Speaker of the Sare Language|url=https://terralingua.org/2020/04/30/remembering-licho-the-last-speaker-of-sare-a-great-andamanese-language/|website=terralingua.org|date=30 April 2020|access-date=24 January 2023}}</ref><ref name="gob">A. N. Sharma (2003), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=WEztW7c0CqQC&pg=PA62 Tribal Development in the Andaman Islands]'', page 62. Sarup & Sons, New Delhi.</ref>

==History== The Cari population at the time of first European contacts (in the 1790s) has been estimated at 100 individuals, out of perhaps 3500 Great Andamanese.<ref name="weber7"/> Like other Andamanese peoples, the Cari were decimated during colonial and post-colonial times, by diseases, alcohol, colonial warfare and loss of territory. The population was down to 39 individuals in the 1901 census, falling to 36 in 1911, 17 in 1921, and 9 in 1931.<ref name="gob"/>

In 1949 any remaining Cari were relocated, together with all other surviving Great Andamanese, to a reservation on Bluff island; and then again in 1969 to a reservation on Strait Island.<ref name="mann">Rann Singh Mann (2005), [https://books.google.com/books?id=FPX6wiuZ3ikC&pg=PA149 Andaman and Nicobar Tribes Restudied: Encounters and Concerns], page 149. Mittal Publications. {{ISBN|81-8324-010-0}}</ref>

By 1994, the tribe was reduced to only two women, aged 57 and 59, and therefore was on its way to extinction.<ref name="gob"/> The last speaker, a woman called Licho, died from chronic tuberculosis on 4 April 2020 in Shadipur, Port Blair.<ref>{{Cite web|last=International|first=Survival|date=1 June 2020|title=The last speaker of the Sare language has died|url=https://medium.com/@survivalinternational/the-last-speaker-of-the-sare-language-has-died-767013159e83|access-date=28 June 2020|website=Medium|language=en}}</ref>

They are a designated Scheduled Tribe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://censusindia.gov.in/Tables_Published/SCST/ST%20Lists.pdf |page=27 |title=List of notified Scheduled Tribes |publisher=Census India |access-date=15 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131107225208/http://censusindia.gov.in/Tables_Published/SCST/ST%20Lists.pdf |archive-date=7 November 2013 }}</ref>

==Grammar== The Great Andamanese languages are agglutinative languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system.<ref name=Templ>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.</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"/>

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".

'This' and 'that' are distinguished as ''k-'' and ''t-''.

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"/>

== See also == * Great Andamanese language

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://archive.org/stream/rosettaproject_aci_swadesh-1/aci.txt Aka-Cari Swadesh List]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andamanese, Aka-Cari, Language}} Category:Agglutinative languages Category:Great Andamanese languages Category:Extinct languages of Asia Category:Languages of India Category:Languages extinct in the 2020s Category:2020 disestablishments in India