A-Pucikwar language

A-Pucikwar
Native to	India
Region	Andaman Islands
Native speakers	Extinct. Possibly a few aspects survive as incorporated by the modern Great Andamanese creole
Language family	Andamanese (possibly) Great Andamanese Central A-Pucikwar
Language codes
ISO 639-3	apq

A-Pucikwar (also known as Pucikwar) is an extinct language of the Andaman Islands, India, formerly spoken by the A-Pucikwar people on the south coast of Middle Andaman, the northeast coast of South Andaman, and on Baratang Island.

As the colonisation and settlement process of the Andaman Islands intensified from the late 19th century and into the 20th century, the indigenous Great Andamanese groups were greatly reduced in number and became alienated from their traditional territories. The few surviving Great Andamanese soon lost the cultural and linguistic distinctions among them that were present at the onset of the 19th century, when at least ten distinct tribal and linguistic groups were recorded. As a language and as a distinct identity, A-Puckiwar and the other groups died out in the 20th century. The few remaining families of Great Andamanese descent—coalesced from several of the former communities and with some admixture of Karen (Burmese) and Indian settlers—were resettled on Strait Island. Approximately half of these speak today a creolised language based mainly on Aka-Jeru with some A-Pucikwar, Hindi and Burmese elements. The remainder speak only Hindi.

See also

• Andamanese languages

External links

• Ethnologue report for A-Pucikwar