| Cari | |
|---|---|
| Sare | |
| Aka-Cari | |
| Native to | 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[1] |
Great Andamanese
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | aci |
aci.html | |
| Glottolog | akac1240 |
 Aka-Cari | |
 | |
Akachari, orCari (occasionally 'Kari', 'Chariar' or 'Sare'), is an extinct dialect of theNorthern Andamanese language that was spoken by theCari people, one of the dozenGreat Andamanese peoples.[2][3][4]
In the 19th century, the Cari lived on the north coast ofNorth Andaman, as well as onLandfall 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 onStrait Island. Aka-Cari became extinct with the death of Licho in April 2020.[5][6][1]
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.[3]Like otherAndamanese 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.[1]
In 1949 any remaining Cari were relocated, together with all other surviving Great Andamanese, to a reservation onBluff island; and then again in 1969 to a reservation onStrait Island.[7]
By 1994, the tribe was reduced to only two women, aged 57 and 59, and therefore was on its way to extinction.[1] The last speaker, a woman called Licho, died from chronic tuberculosis on 4 April 2020 in Shadipur,Port Blair.[8]
They are a designatedScheduled Tribe.[9]
The Great Andamanese languages areagglutinative languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system.[10] They have a distinctivenoun class system based largely on body parts, in which everynoun andadjective may take aprefix 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 thetongue.[10]
Body parts areinalienably possessed, requiring apossessive adjectiveprefix to complete them, so one cannot say "head" alone, but only "my, or his, or your, etc. head".
'This' and 'that' are distinguished ask- andt-.
Judging from the available sources, the Andamanese languages have only twocardinal numbers —one andtwo — and their entire numerical lexicon is one, two, one more, some more, and all.[10]