recording languages before the speakers vanish

["oryoki2000" oryoki2000]

Parallel to the loss of natural soundscapes:

The NYTimes published an article about efforts to record the sounds of huma=
n languages before the speakers vanish.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/science/28prof.html

The article says 2000 of the world's 6000 known languages are found in Afri=
ca.  Many of the languages are spoken only in a few isolated villages, and =
some are spoken by only a handful of people.

Researchers hope to make a record of this speech before it's lost. Today's =
digital recording technology makes this job easier.