Kets are a living linguistic fossil. Several hundred strong and dwindling, they inhabit swampy, mosquito-infested areas along the Yenisei, a mighty central Siberian river whose bright-blue waters flow into the Arctic Ocean. Thousands of years ago, reindeer pastoralists and horse herders pressed…
Linguist Shaw N. Gynan, from Western Washington University, has been working with four indigenous women in northern Paraguay’s Rio Apa community to preserve the endangered Guana language.