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andamanese varnamaala

 

Foreword

The Andamanese language is one of the oldest languages of the world and it is our national heritage. It is very unfortunate that there are not more than eight or ten members in the community who speak this language. The present form of this language which is commonly known as Jeru, is a mixed variety of some of the languages of the Andaman Islands that were spoken in the past but are extinct now. During the work of the project Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese, we had a chance to meet many Andamanese children and felt that they should get an opportunity to learn their ancestral language. This is a small and modest attempt to familiarize the Andamanese children with the letters of their language. Since most of them are already learning Hindi in school, we decided to use the Devanagri script in this book. Each Andamanese word is also given in Roman script to make it accessible to a larger audience. We hope that the children will love this first Book of Letters.

March 2008

Anvita Abbi
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi

 

Press Release

A multicoloured ‘Book of Letters of Great Andamanese’ was released today, the 28th March 2008,  by the Deputy Commissioner Mr. Jha in the Vivekanand School, Port Blair. The book is written by Prof. Anvita Abbi, an eminent linguist from the Jawaharlal Nehru University assisted by Mr. Nao Jr., the Andamanese speaker who still retains his language, and Mr. Abhishek Avatans, of the Jawaharlal Nehru University. A CD of folk songs of Great Andamanese was also released which is a compilation of songs rendered in the voices of the Great Andamanese people. This is the first ever attempt to document the folk songs of the tribe. Prof. Anvita Abbi is directing a mega documentation project ‘Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese’ since 2005, under which an interactive trilingual (English, Hindi and Great Andamanese) dictionary and the grammar of the language are near completion. Elaborate recordings of narrations, folk tales, language, and indigenous knowledge are already made. As the language is on the verge of extinction because inter-generational  transfer no longer exists, collection and documentation of oral tradition have far reaching impact on our knowledge of the ancient civilization. She has incorporated highly sophisticated technology to undertake the documentation work.

Images of Varnamaala launch

       

Click for Andamani varnamaala

 

Boa Sr.

Boro

Noa Jr.