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First Take
Photograph by Chris Rainier, National Geographic
In India's remote Arunachal Pradesh (map), linguist Gregory Anderson, director of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, makes one of the first ever recordings of the "hidden" language Koro, whose existence was announced Tuesday. Read full story >>
Koro speakers' language is as different from that of their neighbors as English is from Japanese, yet Koro has only now been scientifically documented as its own tongue, according to the National Geographic Society's Enduring Voices Project. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)
Published October 5, 2010
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Koro Trio
Photograph by Chris Rainier, National Geographic
Three Koro speakers gather at a house in a small village in northeastern India. Read full story >>
Only about 800 Koro speakers remain, and few of them are under 20, researchers say.
(Related: "Languages Racing to Extinction in 5 Global 'Hotspots.'")
Published October 5, 2010
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"Hidden" Language's Newest Guardian?
Photograph by Chris Rainier, National Geographic
In India's Kichang village, Koro speakers, such as this mother, believed Koro to be a dialect of another language spoken in the area. Read full story >>
Published October 5, 2010
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Face of Koro
Photograph by Chris Rainier, National Geographic
Koro speaker Sange Degio, of Arunachal Pradesh, India, is one of the few keepers of a dwindling flame. Roughly every two weeks a language goes up in smoke somewhere in the world, according to the Enduring Voices Project. Read full story >>
Published October 5, 2010
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For Posterity
Photograph by Chris Rainier, National Geographic
Swarthmore University linguist K. David Harrison (foreground) and colleagues record stories and vocabulary as Koro speakers converse in Kichang village, India. Read full story >>
Harrison and Gregory Anderson, who co-authored the new study, are National Geographic Society fellows. Their Koro findings are detailed in Harrison's new book,The Last Speakers, and in a future issue of the journal Indian Linguistics.
Published October 5, 2010
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