Before she died in 2010, Boa Sr, the last speaker of Bo, a language from the Great Andamanese family, made a plea: “Don’t let the language slip away. Keep hold of it.” She hadn’t spoken to anyone in her language for four decades, but through the work of award-winning linguist Anvita Abbi her knowledge has not died with her. In a new book, Voices from the Lost Horizon, Abbi shares two decades of research from the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. By gaining the trust of the community, she helped the eight remaining speakers of Great Andamanese (three of whom survive today) recall their lost ...
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