International researchers are rushing to document a German colonial-era language from Papua New Guinea before it becomes extinct.

One of the world’s rarest languages is being kept alive in Australia, spoken by just a handful of families.

The rare language is known as Unserdeutsch, or ‘Our German’. The linguists’ work has reunited the scattered speakers, some for the first time in decades.

“Unserdeutsch is a contact language, like all creoles are contact languages, and shares features with PNG pidgin, German and English but it has its own characteristics as well,” said Professor Peter Maitz from the University of Augsburg. More.

See: SBS News

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