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@Linguist_CIOL OCTOBER/NOVEMBER The Linguist 23 help to record all the avian groups recognised by the community, including conservation status, threats and distribution. This process may also lead the investigator towards data in other areas, enabling them to compile a rich dictionary. Information about perching habits, such as the specific trees on which a particular bird nests, helps us obtain the names of trees and their characteristics; details of its flight will lead to a large number of related words in other semantic fields; while descriptions of the bird's appearance help us to collect terms for colours, body parts, textures and other elements that are intertwined with the environment. I am often asked how to approach folk classification – i.e. the way an indigenous community visualises the world and its living beings. The answer lies in a deep morpho- semantic analysis of words and names to decipher the meaning behind them. This is an interdisciplinary effort, with the analysis of terms for birds requiring the assistance of an ornithologist. In this way, a typology of attributes emerged: single-attribute names were found to be generic, etic, onomatopoeic, impressionist, or indicators of eponyms, toponyms, plumage colour, feeding habits, habitat or migratory habits. For example, taka ('Grey Heron') is an onomatopoeic lexeme representing the sound the bird makes by clapping its bill. An example of a double- attribute name is laotcote ('Eurasian Curlew'), a compound of lao ('foreigner'), ot (genitive) and cote ('curvy'), representing the bird's migrant nature and curvy beak. Triple-attribute names combine the above categories. For instance, the crab plover is named celene from ce ('anger'/'beak'), le ('a kind of wild crab') and ne ('plural'). This is descriptive of the feeding habits, food and manner of consuming food. The bird takes the crab in the beak and batters it on the coral shingles, running after it as if in anger. The scientific name is Dromas ardeola, where dromas means 'to run after'. To our surprise, Great Andamanese names for birds were very close to the scientific names in their semantics. An understanding of these names helped us to appreciate how the Great Andamanese interact with their avian environment, and since it bore on the classification and knowledge of nature more broadly, it could help in effective conservation efforts. Other indigenous knowledge Rendering individual words for birds and trees not only enriches the dictionary but also serves as a powerful instrument for accessing the indigenous knowledge system residing in the language. Terms for trees and their uses (both medicinal and general) give a good account of the life pattern of the tribes, as well as information on the environmental treasures of the region. There is a creeper in the jungle called pharaako that entwines many trees and looks like a thick rope. Not only did we find out its various uses in daily life, but also that it plays a very significant role in a creation myth. There is superstition attached to this creeper: pregnant women are barred from crossing its path. There is also an entry on the green snake baralo which includes its characteristics, viz. colour, texture and its non-poisonous nature, and also the fact that it serves the community, especially girls, as a moisturiser if rubbed alive. Similarly, a large number of terms for kinds of crabs 4 enriched our dictionary, in terms not only of the lexical database but also of the indigenous knowledge base about sea shores and their different levels; the pebbles and rocks where the crabs are found; the edibility factor; and techniques for catching them. The symbiotic relation that exists among the fungi, plants, trees, insects and other living organisms in the forest can be easily drawn out while recording the names of these objects. The cooperation of native speakers, their willingness to provide more and more information, and the investigator's desire to learn are essential to the creation of a good dictionary – the kind of dictionary that can help to revive a language. Notes 1 Abbi, A (2012) Great Andamanese Dictionary. An interactive English-Great Andamanese-Hindi dictionary of the endangered language of the Andaman Islands with pictures and sounds, Ratna Sagar: Delhi 2 Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese (2004), funded by the Hans Rausing Endangered Language Fund, SOAS University of London, Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP); www.andamanese.net and elar.soas.ac.uk 3 Pande, S and Abbi, A (2011) Ethno-ornithology. Birds of Great Andamanese – names, classification and culture, OUP: Oxford, Ela Foundation with Bombay Natural History Society 4 We recorded 25 edible and non-edible kinds. COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE Generations of Great Andamanese on Strait Island. Only a few elders speak the language