I had no idea there were entire languages left to discover. Then again, I had no idea there was a group called the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages either, but exist they both do.
The linguists, doing a project for National Geographic, thought these people in the northeast corner of India were speaking a dialect of the Aka culture of the Himalayas - but it turns out they have a different vocabulary and linguistic structure.
The language called Koro is so unknown even its speakers, about 1,000 people, didn't know it was distinct. Linguists say the addition of Koro brings the number of documented languages up to 6,910. They say the discovery was important because a language "dies" about every two weeks with the loss of its last speakers.
They say the Koro language is a member of the Tibeto-Burman language family, which includes 400 languages such as, you guessed from its name, Tibetan and Burmese.
Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages
National Geographic Enduring Voices
The linguists, doing a project for National Geographic, thought these people in the northeast corner of India were speaking a dialect of the Aka culture of the Himalayas - but it turns out they have a different vocabulary and linguistic structure.
The language called Koro is so unknown even its speakers, about 1,000 people, didn't know it was distinct. Linguists say the addition of Koro brings the number of documented languages up to 6,910. They say the discovery was important because a language "dies" about every two weeks with the loss of its last speakers.
They say the Koro language is a member of the Tibeto-Burman language family, which includes 400 languages such as, you guessed from its name, Tibetan and Burmese.
Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages
National Geographic Enduring Voices
I am reminded of the recent publications on the language spoken by the Piraha tribe in the Amazon rainforest, which knows only two words for number: one and ... many. Parts of their language may be totally unique. Researchers have recorded mothers "talking" to their children in something resembling birdsong, wordlessly, but it is still communication, not just music.
Probably the greatest number of languages have been discovered by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) people. They train missionaries to go out to tribes and teach them the Bible in their language.
I knew one guy who lived with a Peruvian tribe and he had fascinating stories to tell. When he went back years later, most of his friends were dead -- murdered by the Sendero Luminoso terrorists.