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Andamanese

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Spoken in North Andaman (Aka-Cari, Aka-Jeru), South Andaman (Aka-Bea and neighbouring tribes).

A cover term for two distinct languages (Aka-Bea, Aka-Jeru) that no source here separates.

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See the Andamanese sky on the chart →

The sky in Andamanese

NameObjectMeaningRegister
Catlo (the larger stars); Katan (the smaller)Figures with no secure modern identificationa finely marked beetle; the common fire-fly
The sun is the wife of the moon and the stars are their children; the big children are named for a beetle and the little ones for the firefly.
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bela-Orion's Belt
The only star or constellation in the Andamans that Man found to bear a name at all.
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ig-yádowa-The Milky Way
Poetically described as the road used by the mòrowin-, the spirits Man renders 'angels'.
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Sources

  1. Radcliffe-Brown, The Andaman Islanders (1922), ch. IV, p. 141 link
  2. Man, On the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands (1883), § 8, p. 118 link