https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=AkarbaleAkarbale - Revision history2026-08-19T13:05:33ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Akarbale&diff=485209&oldid=prevMaxieMorales00: Stub2026-01-01T10:38:35Z<p>Stub</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Extinct Southern Great Andamanese of India}}<br />
{{Infobox language<br />
| name = Bale<br />
| nativename = {{lang|acl|Akar-Bale}}<br />
| states = [[India]]<br />
| region = [[Andaman Islands]]; Ritchie’s Archipelago, Havelock Island, Neill Island.<br />
| extinct = between 1931 and 1951<br />
| ref = <ref name="vanDriem2001"/><br />
| familycolor = Andamanese<br />
| fam1 = [[Great Andamanese languages|Great Andamanese]]<br />
| fam2 = Southern †<br />
| iso3 = acl<br />
| linglist = acl.html<br />
| glotto = akar1243<br />
| glottorefname = Akarbale<br />
| ethnicity = Bale<br />
| map2 = Lang Status 01-EX.svg<br />
| altname = Balawa<br />
| map = Schematic_Map_of_Andamanese_Languages_&_Tribes.png<br />
| mapcaption = {{legend|#b76148|Akar-Bale}}<br />
}}<br />
<br />
The '''Bale language''', '''''Akar-Bale''''' (also ''Balwa'' or ''Balawa''), is an extinct Southern<ref name=Manoh1>Manoharan, S. (1983). "Subgrouping Andamanese group of languages." ''International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics''<br />
XII(1): 82-95.</ref> [[Great Andamanese]] language once spoken in the [[Andaman Islands]] in [[Ritchie's Archipelago]], [[Havelock Island]], and [[Neill Island]].<br />
<br />
==History==<br />
{{Expand section|date=April 2025}}<br />
The Bale disappeared as a distinct people sometime after 1931.<ref name="vanDriem2001">{{Citation | title=Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region : Containing an Introduction to the Symbiotic Theory of Language | author=George van Driem | date=2001 | publisher=BRILL | isbn=90-04-12062-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fiavPYCz4dYC | quote=''... The Aka-Kol tribe of Middle Andaman became extinct by 1921. The Oko-Juwoi of Middle Andaman and the Aka-Bea of South Andaman and Rutland Island were extinct by 1931. The Akar-Bale of Ritchie's Archipelago, the Aka-Kede of Middle Andaman and the A-Pucikwar of South Andaman Island soon followed. By 1951, the census counted a total of only 23 Greater Andamanese and 10 Sentinelese. That means that just ten men, twelve women and one child remained of the Aka-Kora, Aka-Cari and Aka-Jeru tribes of Greater Andaman and only ten natives of North Sentinel Island ...''}}</ref><br />
<br />
==Grammar==<br />
The Great Andamanese languages are [[agglutinative]] languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system.<ref name=Templ>Temple, Richard C. (1902). ''A Grammar of the Andamanese Languages, being Chapter IV of Part I of the Census Report on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands''. Superintendent's Printing Press: Port Blair.</ref> They have a distinctive [[noun class]] system based largely on body parts, in which every [[noun]] and [[adjective]] may take a [[Prefix (linguistics)|prefix]] according to which body part it is associated with (on the basis of shape, or functional association). Thus, for instance, the *aka- at the beginning of the language names is a prefix for objects related to the [[tongue]].<ref name="Templ"/><br />
<br />
The prefixes are,<br />
<br />
{| class=wikitable<br />
! !!Balawa <br />
|-<br />
!head/heart<br />
|ôt- <br />
|-<br />
!hand/foot <br />
|ong- <br />
|-<br />
!mouth/tongue <br />
|aka- <br />
|-<br />
!torso (shoulder to shins) <br />
|ab- <br />
|-<br />
!eye/face/arm/breast <br />
|id- <br />
|-<br />
!back/leg/butt <br />
|ar- <br />
|-<br />
!waist <br />
|<br />
|}<br />
<br />
Body parts are [[Inalienable possession|inalienably possessed]], requiring a [[possessive adjective]] [[Prefix (linguistics)|prefix]] to complete them, so one cannot say "head" alone, but only "my, or his, or your, etc. head".<br />
<br />
The basic pronouns are almost identical throughout the Great Andamanese languages.<br />
<br />
'This' and 'that' are distinguished as ''k-'' and ''t-''.<br />
<br />
Judging from the available sources, the Great Andamanese languages have only two [[cardinal number (linguistics)|cardinal number]]s &mdash; [[1 (number)|one]] and [[2 (number)|two]] &mdash; and their entire numerical lexicon is one, two, one more, some more, and all.<ref name="Templ"/><br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
*[[Andamanese languages]]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
<br />
{{Andamanese languages}}<br />
<br />
<br />
{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Andamanese, Akar-Bale, Language}}<br />
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]<br />
[[Category:Great Andamanese languages]]<br />
[[Category:Extinct languages of Asia]]<br />
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 20th century]]<br />
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