Linguistics

Abstract

When you begin working in a new community, you may have the opportunity to learn the language spoken by the local people. Of the world’s estimated 6000 living languages, most are spoken by small ethnic minorities ranging from a few individuals to several thousand people. These languages, many of which are not: traditionally written, are often spoken in the communities where ethnobotanists tend to work. Few courses are offered in these languages and even simple vocabularies and grammars may be hard to obtain.