She was the last speaker of this ancient language and had no one to talk to — except birds

The loss of a language often signifies the loss of an entire culture. When Boa Senior, the last speaker of the ancient language Bo, passed away at the age of 85 in the Andaman Islands, India, the world lost crucial access to that culture, according to the BBC. At the time of her death, she had no friends or family and resorted to talking to birds to alleviate her loneliness, as highlighted in a video by @bbcworldservice on Instagram. Boa had been the sole speaker of the language Bo for approximately 40 years following the death of her parents.

Boa mentioned that no one around her could understand her language, prompting her to learn Andamanese Hindi to communicate with others. According to Professor Anvita Abbi, a prominent linguist in the country, the language could be thousands of years old. "This language had been spoken in isolation and had not come into contact with other languages," Professor Abbi revealed. "Maybe it's one of the oldest languages." Before Boa Senior died in 2010, Abbi spent a lot of time with her in an attempt to preserve the language. "Don't forget our language," Boa expressed. So, the professor began keeping a record of the words the woman taught her and published them in a book called "Dictionary of the Great Andamanese Language" after Boa's death.

"She used to sing to herself all the time to mitigate her loneliness. She had no family," Abbi recounted. "When I met her, she told me, 'I have been the lone speaker for around forty years.' She used to talk to birds." The woman believed that the birds were our ancestors and the only creatures in the world who understood her. The professor and Boa became friends, and Boa even made jewelry for her as a gift. "When she started making the jewelry, I was sure she was just making it. But later on, she became so friendly with me that she gifted it to me. That jewelry was very precious to me." The professor felt that the country had lost an indispensable part of its heritage. The languages on the island are believed to have originated in Africa and could be up to 70,000 years old.

"It is generally believed that all Andamanese languages might be the last representatives of those languages which go back to pre-Neolithic times," Professor Abbi explained. "The Andamanese are believed to be among our earliest ancestors." Many people took to the comments section of BBC's Instagram video to express their grief over the loss of a language and, simultaneously, of the culture that went with it.

@itsrandev wrote, "I grieve the death of languages all the time. Our collective human experience is becoming monotonous over time, losing everything that makes us unique. I hope this woman found peace." @77gbril commented, "That's so sad. Reminds me of the lost languages from the Amazon forest. Languages we'll never know about, some of them lost even before we could find them." @ryleighmitton remarked, "The death of a language always makes me sad to think that thousands of years of culture snuffed out." @missgingerrobyn shared, "This relationship is so beautiful. So sad that the last speaker of the language died, but what a wonderful thing this woman did to keep it alive."

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