Endangered Languages

Kusunda: The Ghost Language of Nepal

Once believed to be extinct, the Kusunda language of Nepal is a true linguistic ghost, with no known relatives in…

3 weeks ago

The Language of North Sentinel Island

On a remote island lives a people who have rejected all contact with the modern world. Their language, Sentinelese, is…

3 weeks ago

The Last Words of Old Prussian: How a Language Was Erased by the Sword

The death of a language is usually a slow fade, but Old Prussian was not so lucky. It was systematically…

3 weeks ago

The Emperor’s Fading Echo: The Precarious Survival of the Manchu Language

Once the official language of China's last imperial dynasty, Manchu is now on the verge of extinction with only a…

3 weeks ago

The World’s Smallest Languages: When a Language Has Fewer Than 10 Speakers

What happens when a language's entire world can fit into a single room? We explore the most extreme cases of…

3 weeks ago

The First-Contact Linguist: The Ethical Tightrope of Studying a Previously Uncontacted People’s Language

What are the ethical responsibilities of a linguist who is the first outsider to document a language from a previously…

3 weeks ago

The Ainu Language: A Linguistic Island in Japan

On the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, a language isolate with no known relatives is fighting for survival. The Ainu…

3 weeks ago

The Language Catchers: Racing Against Time to Document Endangered Tongues

Every two weeks, a language dies, taking with it a unique way of seeing the world. Meet the "Language Catchers,"…

3 weeks ago

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