The village of Akazu’yw lies in the rainforest, a day’s drive from the state capital of Belém, deep in the Brazilian Amazon.

Last week I went to Akazu’yw, carrying a dozen Android phones with a specialised app for recording speech. My students and I had developed the software in Melbourne. How effectively would it work in Amazonia?

The plan was to record and translate the stories of the surviving speakers of Tembé, a critically endangered language of the Amazon, with just 150 speakers left.

We wanted to test our mobile phone app, an inexpensive and scalable method for capturing the world’s vanishing languages while there is still time.

Travelling with me were Katie Gelbart and Isaac McAlister. Katie had been exploring South America for six months, and Isaac had been on holiday with his ornithologist uncle in Manaus, further up the Amazon river.

By chance, both arrived in Belém a few days before I did, got wind of my project, and asked to come along for the ride.

So it was that we found ourselves clambering onto a bus and heading out into the unknown, wondering what adventure awaited us. More.

See: SBS

Subscribe to the translation news daily digest here. See more translation news.