Last member of 65,000-year-old tribe dies,

[Still Waters]

The last member of a 65,000-year-old tribe has died, taking one of the world's earliest languages to the grave.

Boa Sr, who died last week aged about 85, was the last native of the Andaman Islands who was fluent in Bo.

Named after the tribe, Bo is one of the 10 Great Andamanese languages, which are thought to date back to the pre-Neolithic period when the earliest humans walked out of Africa.

Boa was the oldest member of the Great Andamanese, a group of tribes that are the the first descendants of early humans who migrated from Africa about 70,000 years ago and who arrived on the islands around 65,000. Other groups went on to colonise Indonesia and Australia.

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[realmcutter]

don't really know what to say, its a sad moment in human history, but it was meant to happen eventually and these things happen from time to time. Its just public interest of history is being deminished with obsession with technology, as slowly nearly everything else is.

[Siara]

It IS sad. A unique definition of the universe is lost to us.

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Reading this got me to thinking: When does a linguistic unit get defined as a language anyway?

Like, Spanish and Italian people can basically understand each other but we define those two as separate languages. I had the weird experience once of discovering that I could basically understand people speaking in Basque because I speak French and Spanish and know a bit of Latin.

The other language I speak (to a tiny, tiny extent) is Welsh, which I learned from my father who grew up with parents who'd moved to America from Ffestiniog. Supposedly Welsh is a very ancient language and English is younger. But obviously the speakers of both languages have ancestors way back to the dawn of homo sapiens who spoke to each other. Aren't all languages in a continuous process of development?

[Siara]

Oops, I meant CATALAN not Basque. Duh.

[Sanderz]

They should clone her!

The tribe will be preserved, but the language will be lost, but hey! You save an ancient tribe!

[Child of the light]

What i wanna know is how her tribe was reduced to...well just her, and if their so sad that the language has been lost then may that be a reminder that next time send someone to study it,duh

[xYlvax]

What i wanna know is how her tribe was reduced to...well just her, and if their so sad that the language has been lost then may that be a reminder that next time send someone to study it,duh

i agree. it saddens me how that piece of history has been lost forever.

[Siara]

i agree. it saddens me how that piece of history has been lost forever.

There was this native American named Ishi who was the last of his tribe. If this story interests you try Googling "Ishi".

[brlesq1]

How utterly sad. I hope the good professor recorded her native tongue. Might as well put all our technology to use.

[Squidlet]

The last representative of the tribe of Bo just passed on...

The Face of Bo died.

[Barnacle Battlefront]

^ I applaud your Doctor Who reference

It's quite sad that this is the end of such an ancient tribe, but I guess all things must end at somepoint