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Okojuwoi language
The Juwoi language, Oko-Juwoi (also Junoi), is an extinct Great Andamanese language, of the Central group. It was spoken in the west central and southwest interior of Middle Andaman. HistoryThe Juwoi were one of the indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, one of the ten or so Great Andamanese tribes identified by British colonials in the 1860s. Their language was closely related to the other Great Andamanese languages. They were extinct as a distinct people by 1931.[1] GrammarThe Great Andamanese languages are agglutinative languages, with an extensive prefix and suffix system.[2] 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.[2] An adjectival example can be given by the various forms of yop, "pliable, soft", in Aka-Bea:[2]
Similarly, beri-nga "good" yields:
The prefixes are,
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; Aka-Bea will serve as a representative example (pronouns given in their basic prefixal forms):
'This' and 'that' are distinguished as k- and t-. Judging from the available sources, the Andamanese languages have only two cardinal numbers — one and two — and their entire numerical lexicon is one, two, one more, some more, and all.[2] SampleAs an example, we give part of a creation myth in Oko-Juwoi, reminiscent of Prometheus: Kuro-t'on-mik-a Kuro-t'on-mik-in Mom Mr. Mirit-la, Pigeon, Bilik God l'ôkô-ema-t, ?-slep-t, peakar wood at-lo fire-with top-chike stealing-was at fire laiche the.late Lech-lin Lech-to a, he, kotik then a he ôko-kodak-chine ?-fire-make-did at-lo fire-with Karat-tatak-emi-in. Karat-tatak-emi-at. Mr. Pigeon stole a firebrand at Kuro-t'on-mika, while God was sleeping. He gave the brand to the late Lech, who then made fires at Karat-tatak-emi. (Translated by Portman) References
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