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Great Andamanese is a moribund language which is breathing its last. Language death is associated with a reduction of vocabulary, reduction of domains and reduced complexity of linguistic structures. It is prominently associated with a shift to the dominant language as well as change of attitudes of its speakers towards their heritage language. A moribund language is
characterized by features such as very few terminal speakers with low competency in the heritage language, cessation of inter-generation transfer of the language and a drastic shift to the dominant language accompanied by feeling of the heritage language being "inferior" to the dominant language. The Great Andamanese demonstrate the typical tendencies of such a language community with one exception, i.e. the dying language is not considered inferior to other languages in any sense. This phenomenon is exemplified in their responses to our direct questions which were found to be contrary to the reality. The typical method of eliciting data through questionnaires obtained the "ideal" situations that the community wishes to be in. The present study illustrates the sociolinguistic profile of the Great Andamanese community,
combining the real and ideal situations. Our observation of the speech behaviour confirms loss of several registers including the art of narration. Out of all the genres of language use, one alone remains. It is the singing of indigenous songs. It is observed that the life of songs in heritage language is longer than the language itself. Our observation and the analysis of the responses from the community members not only bring out the factors associated with language endangerment but also the uniqueness of Great Andamanese as a language on the verge of extinction.

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Indian Linguistics, 68.3-4, 325-343.