Last speaker of ancient language dies

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Boa Sr remained the last Bo speaker for at least 30 years

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 - 2013

The death of the woman, Boa Senior, was highly significant because one of the world's oldest languages, Bo, had come to an end, Professor Anvita Abbi said.
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 up to 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.
'Infectious'
Professor Abbi - who runs the Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese (Voga) website - explained: "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 Andamanese version of Hindi in order to communicate with people.
"But throughout her life she had a very good sense of humour and her smile and full-throated laughter were infectious."
She 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".

FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE

"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."
Boa Sr's case has also been highlighted by the Survival International (SI) campaign group.
"The extinction of the Bo language means that a unique part of human society is now just a memory," SI Director Stephen Corry said.
'Imported illnesses'
She said that two languages in the Andamans had now died out over the last three months and that this was a major cause for concern.

Professor Abbi and Boa Sr became firm friends

Academics have divided Andamanese tribes into four major groups, the Great Andamanese, the Jarawa, the Onge and the Sentinelese.
Professor Abbi says that all apart from the Sentinelese have come into contact with "mainlanders" from India and have suffered from "imported illnesses".
She says that the Great Andamanese are about 50 in number - mostly children - and live in Strait Island, near the capital Port Blair.
Boa Sr was part of this community, which is made up of 10 "sub-tribes" speaking at least four different languages.
The Jarawa have about 250 members and live in the thick forests of the Middle Andaman. The Onge community is also believed to number only a few hundred.
"No human contact has been established with the Sentinelese and so far they resist all outside intervention," Professor Abbi said.
It is the fate of the Great Andamanese which most worries academics, because they depend largely on the Indian government for food and shelter - and abuse of alcohol is rife.

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Last Alaska language speaker dies 2008

Ms Jones dedicated much of her life to preserving the Eyak language A woman believed to be the last native speaker of the Eyak language in the north-western US state of Alaska has died at the age of 89. Marie Smith Jones was a champion of indigenous rights and conservation. She died at her home in Anchorage. She helped the University of Alaska compile an Eyak dictionary, so that future generations would have the chance to resurrect it. Nearly 20 other native Alaskan languages are at risk of disappearing. Ms Jones is described by her family as a tiny chain smoking woman who was fiercely independent, says the BBC's Peter Bowes in Los Angeles. "To the best of our knowledge, she was the last full-blooded Eyak alive," her daughter Bernice Galloway told the Associated Press news agency. "She was a woman who faced incredible adversity in her life and overcame it. She was about as tenacious as you can get." She believed passionately in preserving the Eyak language and wanted a written record of it to be kept so for future generations, our correspondent adds. 'Tragic mantle' The Eyak ancestral homeland runs along almost 500km (300 miles) of the Gulf of Alaska. She was very much alone as the last speaker of Eyak Michael Krauss University of Alaska Fairbanks professor With her husband, a white Oregon fisherman, Ms Jones had nine children, seven of whom are still alive. But none of them learned Eyak because they grew up at a time when it was considered wrong to speak anything but English, her daughter said. According to Michael Krauss, a linguist and professor with whom she worked, "she was very much alone as the last speaker of Eyak" for the last 15 years. "She understood as only someone in her unique position could, what it meant to be the last of her kind," Mr Krauss said. "It's the first, but probably not the last, at the rate things are going, of the Alaska Native languages to go extinct. She understood what was at stake and its significance, and bore that tragic mantle with grace and dignity."