Boa Sr.

Boa Sr. (circa 1925 - Januar 26, 2010) wis an Indien Great Andamanese elder. She wis the lest survivin person wha mindit ony Bo, a leid o the Great Andamanese leid faimily.

She wis born aroond 1925.

Boa Sr. lived throu the epidemic brocht bi the Breetish tae the Andaman an Nicobar Islands, whilk spulyied the Great Andamanese populaution, an the Japanese invasion an occupation o the Andaman Islands durin the Seicont Warld War. Boa Sr.'s mither, wha dee'd thareaboot fowerty year afore her daith, wis the ae livin speaker o Bo for a lang time. Ither members o the Great Andamanese speech community haed difficulty understanding the sangs an narratives whilk she kent in Bo. She forby spoke the Andamanese dialect o Hindi, as weel as Great Andamanese, a mix o the ten hamelt leids o the Andamans.

Boa Sr. wirkit wi Anvita Abbi, a professor o linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, syne 2005. Abbi studied an recordit Boa's leid an sangs.

Boa Sr. survived the 2004 Indie Ocean yirdquauk bi sclimmin a tree. She aifter expleent her escape frae the tsunami saying, "We wur aw thare whan the yirdquauk cam. The auldest telt us at the Earth wad be pairtin, dinnae rin awa or muive."

Her husband, Nao Jer, dee'd siveral year afore she did an the coople haed nae childer. She suffert frae some vision loss durin her later life, but wis conseidert tae be in guid heal until shortly afore her daith in 2010.

Boa Sr. dee'd at a hospital in Port Blair on Januar 26, 2010. Boa Sr., wha wis thareaboot 85 year auld, wis the auldest livin member o the Great Andamanese tribes at the time. Boa Sr.'s daith left juist 52 surviving Great Andamanese fowk in warld, none o whom remember ony Bo. Thair population is greatly reduced frae the estimatit 5,000 Great Andamanese livin in the Andaman Islands at the time o the arrival o the Breetish in 1858.

Stephen Corry, director o the Breetish-based NGO Survival International, issued a statement sayin, "Wi the daith o Boa Sr. an the extinction o the Bo leid, a unique part o human society is nou juist a memory. Boa's loss is a bleak reminder that we maunna be allouin this tae be happenin tae the ither tribes o the Andaman Islands." Linguist Narayan Choudhary forby expleent whit the loss o Boa Sr. meant in baith academic an personal terms, "Her loss isnae juist the loss o the Great Andamanese community, it is a loss o several disciplines o studies put together, including anthropology, linguistics, heestory, psychology, an biology. Tae me, Boa Sr. epitomised a totality o humanity in aw its hues an wi a richness that isnae to be found any ither gait."

 References 

Category:1925 births
Category:2010 daiths
Category:Indie fowk
Category:Last kent speakers o a leid
Category:Fowk frae the Andaman an Nicobar Islands
Category:Andamanese leids