The world speaks some 6,700 languages, and 4,000 of them are spoken by indigenous peoples, who make up less than 6% of the global population. In this episode, we speak with researchers who venture into the world's remotest corners in their quest to document languages, to help revive or reinforce community tongues, or to discover what even a single, little-known language may have to teach us about the way humans communicate. Linguist Assoc Prof Nick Thieberger and cultural anthropologist Dr Debra McDougall are joined by hosts Charlotte Mackay and Peter Hurst.

A podcast from the University of Melbourne's School of Languages and Linguistics. Produced by Eric van Bemmel and Kelvin Param of Profactual, Gavin Nebauer, Charlotte Mackay and Peter Hurst.