The Bale language, Akar-Bale (also Balwa or Balawa), is an extinct SouthernManoharan, S. (1983). "Subgrouping Andamanese group of languages." International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics XII(1): 82-95. Great Andamanese language once spoken in the Andaman Islands in Ritchie's Archipelago, Havelock Island, and Neill Island.
History
The Akarbale language (also known as Akar-Bale or Balwa) was Southern Great Andamanese language spoken traditionally by the Bale people in the Ritchie Archipelago of the Andaman Islands, including Havelock and Neil Island. According to historical records the language declined quickly during the late 19th century and early 20th century. The main reasons are the British colonization, introduction of new diseases and the displacement of indigenous population.
The Bale disappeared as a distinct people sometime after 1931. The Akarbale language became extinct by the mid twentieth century. The limited linguistic documentation comes mainly from works of Richard C. Temple followed by S. Manoharan, George van Driem, and Raoul Zamponi. This managed to preserve valuable information about it.
Grammar The Great Andamanese languages are agglutinative languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system.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. They have a distinctive noun class system based largely on body parts, in which every noun and adjective may take a 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.
The prefixes are,
Balawa head/heartôt- hand/foot ong- mouth/tongue aka- torso (shoulder to shins) ab- eye/face/arm/breast id- back/leg/butt ar- waist
Body parts are inalienably possessed, requiring a possessive adjective prefix to complete them, so one cannot say "head" alone, but only "my, or his, or your, etc. head".
The basic pronouns are almost identical throughout the Great Andamanese languages.
'This' and 'that' are distinguished as k- and t-.
Judging from the available sources, the Great Andamanese languages have only two cardinal numbers — one and two — and their entire numerical lexicon is one, two, one more, some more, and all.
See also Andamanese languages
References