印度部落老妇去世 6.5万年古老语言失传
One of the world's oldest dialects, which traces its origins to tens of thousands of years ago, has become extinct after the last person to speak it died on a remote Indian island.
Boa Sr, the 85-year-old last speaker of "Bo," was the oldest member of the Great Andamanese tribe, R.C. Kar, deputy director of Tribal Health in Andaman, told reporters on Friday.
She died last week in Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which were hit by a devastating tsunami in 2004.
"With the death of Boa Sr and the extinction of the Bo language, a unique part of human society is now just a memory," said Stephen Corry, director of Survival International, an organization that supports tribes worldwide.
"Boa's loss is a bleak reminder that we must not allow this to happen to the other tribes of the Andaman Islands," he said in a statement.
Kar said Bo was one of the ten dialects used by the Great Andamanese tribe.
According to Survival International, there are now only 52 members surviving members of the tribe, which is thought to have lived on the Andaman Islands for as many as 65,000 years, making them descendants of one of the oldest cultures in the world.
The Great Andamanese had the biggest population of all the island tribes until the early 20th century.
Originally 10 distinct tribes, the Great Andamanese were 5,000-strong when the British colonized the Andaman Islands in 1858. Most were killed or died of diseases brought by the colonizers, Surival International said.
The surviving Great Andamanese depend largely on the Indian government for handouts and alcohol abuse is rife.
The cluster of more than 550 Andaman and Nicobar islands, of which only about three dozen are inhabited, are home to six tribes of Mongoloid and African origin, who have lived there for thousands of years.
The current home of the Great Andamanese is Strait Island, a small island of Middle Andaman Region.
日前，世界最古老的一门语言随着印度某偏远岛屿上一名老妇的离世而失传。该语言有着数万年历史，这名老妇是最后一个会说该语言的人。
这位名叫波阿的老妇是会说波族语的最后一人，也是大安达曼部落年龄最大的成员，安达曼卫生部副主任R.C.卡尔上周五接受记者采访时称。
波阿于上周在安达曼•尼科巴群岛的首府布莱尔港去世。该岛于2004年遭受了海啸的毁灭性袭击。
为世界各地的部落提供支持的“生存国际”组织的主管史蒂芬•科里说：“随着波阿的离世和波族语的消亡，人类社会的一支奇葩现已成为回忆。”
他在一份声明中说：“波阿的去世让我们认识到，不能让悲剧在安达曼岛屿的其它部落重演。”
卡尔称，波族语是大安达曼部落使用的十种语言之一。
“生存国际”组织称，大安达曼部落已在安达曼群岛生活了6万5千年之久，目前仅有52个成员，所以“大安达曼人”堪称世界最古老的人类文化遗民之一。
直到20世纪初期，大安达曼人一直是所有群岛部落中人数最多的部落。
大安达曼人原分10个部落，在1858年安达曼岛沦为英国殖民地时共有五千名成员。但据“生存国际”组织介绍，在这之后，多数部落成员被杀害，或死于殖民者带来的疾病。
目前，大安达曼人主要依靠印度政府的救济度日，原住居民酗酒的情况很普遍。
安达曼•尼科巴群岛由550多个岛屿组成，其中仅有大约30多个岛屿有人居住。该群岛上生活着六个古老部落，这些部落是蒙古或非洲人种，已经此生活了数千年。
大安达曼部落目前居住在中安达曼的一个名叫海峡岛的小岛上。
Vocabulary:
handout：a portion of food or the like given to a needy person（救济）
rife：of common or frequent occurrence; prevalent; in widespread existence, activity, or use（普遍的）
