Sunday, October 7, 2012

The Linguist’s Calendar: October 7

Tevfik Esenç
October 7

1992: Tevfik Esenç, the last speaker of Ubykh, dies in Istanbul. Ubykh is known mainly for its awe-inspiring phoneme system, consisting of two vowels and about 80 consonants. As it happens, Esenç died on the very same day that linguistic fieldworker Ole Stig Andersen arrived in order to interview him.

2002: The N|u language dies with the passing away of Elsie Vaalbooi, born some time around 1900.

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