Ancient tribal language becomes extinct as last speaker dies (fwd link)

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Ancient tribal language becomes extinct as last speaker dies

Death of Boa Sr, last person fluent in the Bo language of the Andaman
Islands, breaks link with 65,000-year-old culture

guardian.co.uk
Thursday 4 February 2010 16.28 GMT

Boa Sr, the last speaker of the Bo language of the Andaman Islands,
has died. Photograph: Alok Das/Survival/Survival

The last speaker of an ancient tribal language has died in the Andaman
Islands, breaking a 65,000-year link to one of the world's oldest
cultures.

Boa Sr, who lived through the 2004 tsunami, the Japanese occupation
and diseases brought by British settlers, was the last native of the
island chain who was fluent in Bo.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/04/ancient-language-extinct-speaker-dies