Last Speaker of Ancient Language of Bo Dies in India

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA, February 4, 2010: The last speaker of an ancient language in India’s Andaman Islands has died at the age of about 85, a leading linguist has told the BBC. Professor Anvita Abbi said that the death of Boa Sr was highly significant because one of the world’s oldest languages - Bo - had come to an end. She said that India had lost an irreplaceable part of its heritage. Languages in the Andamans are thought to originate from Africa. Some may be 70,000 years old. The islands are often called an “anthropologist’s dream” and are one of the most linguistically diverse areas of the world.

Professor Abbi said that Boa Sr’s death was a loss for intellectuals wanting to study more about the origins of ancient languages, because they had lost “a vital piece of the jigsaw”. “It is generally believed that all Andamanese languages might be the last representatives of those languages which go back to pre-Neolithic times,” Professor Abbi said. “The Andamanese are believed to be among our earliest ancestors.”