Word: abby
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...Over the centuries, obscure dialects and isolated communities have come and gone, dispersed by conquest or ecological disaster. But linguists stress that something vital gets lost with the death of each oral language. Anvita Abbi, a professor of linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi who spent the better part of the past decade studying the languages of the Andamans, says the speech of hunter-gatherer societies like the Bo carry an intimate, encoded understanding of the natural world and its biodiversity. Though the Bo seldom strayed from the few islands they inhabited, they have at least 67 words...
...spread of diseases brought in by settlers decimated their ranks. After Indian independence, New Delhi attempted to save the Greater Andamanese by forcibly relocating all the tribes' remaining members to one isle, but that led to the gradual loss of distinct hereditary tribal customs and lore. Today, says Abbi, alcoholism is rife among the men, and there is no infrastructure to teach children the language of their forefathers...
...Still, while once endangered languages like Maori or that of native Hawaiians now have a good chance of survival, it's too late for Boa Sr's ancient language. Over the years, she was reportedly patient and eager when sitting down with Abbi and a team of researchers as they compiled an incomplete glossary of Bo vocabulary and made recordings of her singing some folk songs, including parts of an old island creation myth. Boa Sr once lamented to Abbi that she had forgotten so many of the tales of her long-deceased elders. Says Abbi: "She forgot these stories...