Main content

Bringing dead languages back to life

How do you revive a language with no living speakers?

Australia used to be one of the most linguistically diverse places, with over 200 languages. Today, many of Australia鈥檚 indigenous languages are considered 鈥渉ighly endangered鈥. Inspired by his native language, Hebrew, Ghil鈥檃d Zuckermann is a linguistics professor who is on a mission to revive Australia鈥檚 dead and endangered languages, painstakingly piecing them back together from historical documents. We speak to Ghil鈥檃d and Shania Richards from the Barngarla community, whose language is being brought back from the brink.

Presenter: Myra Anubi
Reporter/producer: Josephine Casserly
Producers: Claire Bates & Craig Langran
Series producer: Tom Colls
Sound mix: Annie Gardiner
Editor: Penny Murphy

Email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk

Image: Shania Richards, in the uniform of the Youth Governor of South Australia

Release date:

Available now

24 minutes

People fixing the world on YouTube

Watch stories of people changing their world on the World Service English YouTube channel

Podcast