| Jeru | |
| Nativename: | Aka-Jeru |
| States: | India |
| Region: | Andaman Islands
|
| Ref: | e23 |
| Speakers: | 3 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| Familycolor: | Andamanese |
| Fam1: | Great Andamanese |
| Fam2: | Northern |
| Iso3: | akj |
| Linglist: | akj.html |
| Glotto: | akaj1239 |
| Glottorefname: | Akajeru |
| Map: | Schematic Map of Andamanese Languages & Tribes.png |
| Ethnicity: | Jeru |
The Jeru language, Aka-Jeru (also known as Yerawa, not to be confused with Järawa), is a moribund Great Andamanese language, of the Northern group. Jeru was spoken in the interior and south coast of North Andaman and on Sound Island. A koiné of Aka-Jeru and other northern Great Andamanese languages was once spoken on Strait Island; the last semi-fluent speaker of this, Nao Jr., died in 2009. Aka-Jeru is the last surviving member of the Great Andamanese languages. According to a grammar on Aka-Jeru, it and Aka-Cari are dialects of a singular language, with lexical correspondency between the two at 93%.[1]
As the numbers of Great Andamanese progressively declined over the succeeding decades, the various Great Andamanese tribes either disappeared altogether or became amalgamated through intermarriage. By 1994, the 38 remaining Great Andamanese who could trace their ancestry and culture back to the original tribes belonged to only three of them (Jeru, Bo, and Cari).[2]
The resulting Great Andamanese language was based on Jeru or a creole based on several languages, of which Jeru was a primary component. The last fluent speaker, Nao, died in 2009.
Aka-Jeru has the following consonants:
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Plosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||
| Fricative | ||||||||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
Aka-Jeru has the following vowels:
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | ||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
See Great Andamanese languages for more general grammatical description.
| Mixed Great Andamanese | |
| Also Known As: | Great Andamanese koiné |
| States: | India |
| Region: | Strait Island |
| Ethnicity: | 60 (2020) |
| Extinct: | last semi-fluent speaker, Nao Jr., died in 2009 |
| Familycolor: | mixed |
| Family: | Mixed Khora - Bo - Jeru - Sare on a Jeru base |
| Iso3: | gac |
| Glotto: | mixe1288 |
| Glottorefname: | Mixed Great Andamanese |
| Elp: | 2064 |
| Elpname: | Mixed Great Andamanese |
Great Andamanese koiné is based primarily on Jeru, with lexical and grammatical influence from other North Great Andamanese languages (Aka-Bo, Aka-Kora and Aka-Cari). It is a head-marking polysynthetic and agglutinative language with a SOV pattern. It has a very elaborate system for marking inalienability, with seven possessive markers reflecting different body-divisions. These markers appear as proclitics that classify a large number of nouns as dependent categories. It is proposed that the Great Andamanese conceptualise their world through these interdependencies and thus the grammar encodes this important phenomenon in every grammatical category expressing referential, attributive and predicative meaning.
The Great Andamanese koiné has a seven-vowel system.
| Back | ||||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| Trill | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
Koiné vocabulary:[3]
| Gloss | Great Andamanese | Devanagari | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| nest | aaracha | araca | आराचा | |
| housefly | ijibu | iɟibu | ईजीबू | |
| snake (king cobra) | ulukhu | ulukʰu | ऊलूखू | |
| chilli | ekajira | ekaɟira | एकाजीरा | |
| deer | airen | ɛren | ऐरेन | |
| fishing net | ocho | oco | ओचो | |
| axe | aulo | ɔlo | औलो | |
| snail | kalatop | kalaʈɔp | कालाटौप | |
| dugong | kauroing | kɔrɔiɲ | कौरौईञ | |
| coconut | khider | kʰider | खीदेर | |
| road | ngorto | ŋɔrtɔ | ङौरतौ | |
| betelnut | chaum | cɔm | चौम | |
| dolphin | choa | coa | चोआ | |
| bat | jibet | ɟibeʈ | जीबेट | |
| fish | nyure | ɲure | ञूरे | |
| heron | taka | ʈaka | टाका | |
| tongue | thatat | ʈʰatat | ठातात | |
| sunset | diu | ɖiu | डीऊ | |
| black pig | dirim raa | ɖirim raː | डीरीम राऽ | |
| leaf | taich | tɔc | तौच | |
| dew | thun | tʰun | थून | |
| scorpion | dikiraseni | dikiraseni | दीकीरासेनी | |
| mosquito | nipho | nipʰo | नीफो | |
| mushroom | pata | pata | पाता | |
| crow | phatkaa | pʰaʈka | फाटका | |
| frog | phorube | pʰorube | फोरूबे | |
| rope | pharako | pʰarako | फाराको | |
| green turtle | belotauro | beloʈɔrɔ | बेलोटौरौ | |
| grey pigeon | mirit | mirit | मीरीत | |
| rooster | maucho | mɔcɔ | मौचौ | |
| strewn leaves | yephaay taich | jepʰaːj tɛc | येफाऽय तैच | |
| bamboo | rat | rɛʈ | रैट | |
| tusked male pig | ratairlauto | ratɛrlɔto | रातैरलौतो | |
| smoke | lep | lep | लेप | |
| fire | luro, wuro | luro, wuro | लूरो, वूरो | |
| waist jewellery | shirbele | ʃirbele | शीरबेले | |
| snake | shubi | ʃubi | शूबी | |
| crocodile | sarekateyo | sarekatejo | सारेकातेयो | |
| White-bellied Sea-Eagle | karatchom | karaʈcom | करटचोम | |
| Pacific Golden Plover | chelele | cɛlele | चैलेले | |
| Oriental Honey Buzzard | taulom-tut-bio | ʈɔlom-tut-bio | टौलोम-तूत-बीओ | |
| Whimbrel | chautot | cɔʈoʈ | चौटोट |
With respect to the Great Andamanese family, the use of proclitics in Great Andamanese language shows how the language family is unique in such a way that the body division markers that appear as proclitics pervade the entire grammatical system of the language, a fact not shared by any other known language of the world so far.
| Classes | Partonomy of human body | Body division markers | Verbs | Adjectives | Adverbs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mouth and its semantic extension | a= | mouth-related activity, origin, e.g. a=ɟire 'abuse', a=kopho 'sprout' | mouth-related attributive quality of a person, e.g. a=mu 'mute', a=tutlup 'greedy' | deictic meaning of front or back, anteriority of an action, e.g. a=karap 'behind', a=kaulu 'prior to' | |
| 2 | major external body parts | ɛr= | activity in which the front part of the body is involved. e.g. er=luk 'weigh' | attribute of size, external beauty, e.g. er=buŋoi 'beautiful' | deictic meaning of adjacency, uncontrollable actions/emotions, e.g. er=betto:ʃo 'adjacent to/near X', er=achil 'surprised' | |
| 3 | extreme ends of the body like toes and fingernails | oŋ= | hand-related activity, action to do with extremities of body, e.g. oŋ=cho 'stitch', oŋ=tuɟuro 'trembling of hands' | attributes related to limbs, e.g. oŋ=karacay 'lame', 'handicapped', oŋ=toplo 'alone' | Indicating manner, e.g. oŋ=kocil 'fast', 'hurriedly' | |
| 4 | bodily products and part-whole relationship | ut= | directional, away from the ego, experiential, e.g. ut=cone 'leave', ut=ʈheʈhe-bom 'be hungry' | attributive quality of an X after a part is taken out of it, e.g. ut=lile 'decay', ut=lɔkho 'bare' | emerging out of something, deictic meaning of 'towards X', e.g. ot=le, 'seaward' ot=bo 'backwards' | |
| 5 | organs inside the body | e=, ɛ= | internalised action, when the effect of an action can be seen on the object, or experienced, e.g. e=lɛco 'suck', ɛ=rino 'tear' | inherent attribute of X, e.g. e=sare 'salty', ɛ=bɛn 'soft' | deictic meaning of 'in the middle of X' e.g. te=khil, e=kotra 'inside' | |
| 6 | parts designating round shape/sexual organs | ara= | action that involves side or middle portion of the body, e.g. ara=ɖelo 'be pregnant' | attribute of size, 'time' and belly-related, e.g. ara=pheʈkhetɔ 'big bellied', ara=kaʈa 'stout/dwarf' | deixis of immediate vertical or horizontal space, e.g. ara=balo 'behind X', tara=tal 'right under X' | |
| 7 | parts for legs and related terms | o= ~ ɔ= | action which results in roundish object or in a definite result, e.g. o=cɔrno 'make nest', o=beo 'sting' | external attribute of an X, shape or structure, e.g. o=baloŋ 'round', o=phelala 'slippery' | temporal deixis relating to 'sun rise' or directional deixis, e.g. o=ʈɔ: 'day break', o=kara 'sunset' |
| Contemporary place name | Present Great Andamanese place name | |
|---|---|---|
| Marakele | ||
| Sorobul | ||
| Ilumu Tauro | ||
| Khringkosho | ||
| Havelock Island (Swaraj Island) | Thi Lar Siro | |
| Bilikhu Taraphong | ||
| Neill Island (Shaheed Island) | Tebi Shiro | |
| Boa | ||
| Lurua | ||
| Mauntenga |
| Laotara Nyo | ||
| Thitaumul | ||
| Rait Phor |
The following is a sample text in Present Great Andamanese, in Devanagari, the Latin script, and IPA.