A portrait in the extinction of a human language…

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.

I passed my defense last Thursday, allowing me to use the title “doctor” with no sense of irony.  Huzzah!

I’m still working on the revisions (hence the dearth of blog posts over the last week), but I’m hoping to be finished withing a week or two.  Stay tuned, as another important announcement should be forthcoming soon…