// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Akarbale say to its friend? "Let's bail.
| Bale | |
|---|---|
| Balawa | |
| Akar-Bale | |
| Native to | India |
| Region | Andaman Islands; Ritchie’s Archipelago, Havelock Island, Neill Island. |
| Ethnicity | Bale |
| Extinct | between 1931 and 1951[1] |
Great Andamanese
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | acl |
| Glottolog | akar1243 |
 Akar-Bale | |
 | |
The Bale language, Akar-Bale (also Balwa or Balawa), is an extinct Southern[2] Great Andamanese language once spoken in the Andaman Islands in Ritchie's Archipelago, Havelock Island, and Neill Island.
History
[edit]![[icon]](/everything/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding missing information. (April 2025) |
The Akarbale language (also known as Akar-Bale or Balwa) was Southern Great Andamanese language spoken traditionally by the Bale people in the Ritchie Archipelago of the Andaman Islands, including Havelock and Neil Island. According to historical records the language declined quickly during the late 19th century and early 20th century. The main reasons are the British colonization, introduction of new diseases and the displacement of indigenous population.[3]
The Bale disappeared as a distinct people sometime after 1931.[1] The Akarbale language became extinct by the mid twentieth century. The limited linguistic documentation comes mainly from works of Richard C. Temple followed by S. Manoharan, George van Driem, and Raoul Zamponi. This managed to preserve valuable information about it.[4][3]
Grammar
[edit]The Great Andamanese languages are agglutinative languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system.[5] 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.[5]
The prefixes are,
| Balawa | |
|---|---|
| head/heart | ôt- |
| hand/foot | ong- |
| mouth/tongue | aka- |
| torso (shoulder to shins) | ab- |
| eye/face/arm/breast | id- |
| back/leg/butt | ar- |
| waist |
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.
'This' and 'that' are distinguished as k- and t-.
Judging from the available sources, the Great Andamanese languages have only two cardinal numbers — one and two — and their entire numerical lexicon is one, two, one more, some more, and all.[5]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 George van Driem (2001), Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region : Containing an Introduction to the Symbiotic Theory of Language, BRILL, ISBN 90-04-12062-9,
... The Aka-Kol tribe of Middle Andaman became extinct by 1921. The Oko-Juwoi of Middle Andaman and the Aka-Bea of South Andaman and Rutland Island were extinct by 1931. The Akar-Bale of Ritchie's Archipelago, the Aka-Kede of Middle Andaman and the A-Pucikwar of South Andaman Island soon followed. By 1951, the census counted a total of only 23 Greater Andamanese and 10 Sentinelese. That means that just ten men, twelve women and one child remained of the Aka-Kora, Aka-Cari and Aka-Jeru tribes of Greater Andaman and only ten natives of North Sentinel Island ...
- ↑ Manoharan, S. (1983). "Subgrouping Andamanese group of languages." International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics XII(1): 82-95.
- 1 2 Zamponi, Raoul; Comrie, Bernard (2020-07-15), "Comparative Akabea–Akarbale basic lexical items", in Zamponi, Raoul; Comrie, Bernard (eds.), A Grammar of Akabea, Oxford University Press, p. 0, ISBN 978-0-19-885579-8, retrieved 2026-07-05
- ↑ "Glottolog 5.3 - Akarbale". glottolog.org. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
- 1 2 3 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.
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