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Saving vanishing ‘tongues’
Many languages disappear every year. In a race against time, language
researchers are using digital technology to preserve those tongues from
extinction
BY STEPHEN ORNES<https://student.societyforscience.org/author/stephen-ornes>

10:12AM, MAY 23, 2014

*Ong uyan madongo?*

You probably don’t know how to answer that question — unless you happen to
be one of the roughly 430 people in the world who speak a language called
Matukar Panau. Then you would know it means, “How are you?”

Matukar Panau is one of the world’s rarest languages. It is spoken in just
two small coastal villages in Papua New Guinea. This tropical island nation
lies in the southwest Pacific Ocean.

Until five years ago, David Harrison, a language expert at Swarthmore
College in Pennsylvania didn’t know much about Matukar Panau either. No one
had ever recorded or even studied its words and rules. With so few
speakers, the language risked vanishing without a blip. It was endangered.


Access full article below:
https://student.societyforscience.org/article/saving-vanishing-tongues-3000-world-languages-face-extinction-apps-can-help-save-them
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