Created by Olympiados
Last edited March 29, 2026


Northern Andamanese
Native toIndia
RegionAndaman Islands; North Andaman island
EthnicityAndamanese
Native speakers
3 (2020)[1]
Great Andamanese
  • Northern Andamanese – Kede
    • Northern Andamanese
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
aci – Aka-Cari
ack – Aka-Kora
akj – Aka-Jeru
akm – Aka-Bo
Glottolognort2678
Great andamanese [sic] is classified as Critically Endangered according to the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.[2]

Northern Andamanese is the critically endangered native language of North Andaman Island. It is closely related to Akakede and seems to have consisted of four mutually intelligible dialects: Akachari (Cari), Akakhora (Kora), Akabo (Bo), and Akajeru (Jeru). Jeru is the only one with speakers remaining.[3][4]

When the North Andamanese people were resettled to Strait Island, a koiné developed from the resulting mixture of dialects. It went extinct in the early 2000s.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. Template:E25
  2. Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (Report) (3rd ed.). UNESCO. 2010. p. 31.
  3. Zamponi, Raoul; Comrie, Bernard (2021). A grammar of Akajeru: fragments of a traditional North Andamanese dialect (PDF). Grammars of world and minority languages. London: UCL Press. ISBN 978-1-80008-093-5.
  4. Bernard Comrie & Raoul Zamponi. 2019. Subgrouping and lexical distance in the Great Andamanese family. In Wortschätze & Sprachwelten, Beiträge zu Sprachtypologie, kontrastiver Wort- bzw. Wortschatzforschung und Pragmatik, edited by Michail L. Kotin, 35–57. Berlin: Peter Lang