Introduction

Abstract

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has declared 2019 the “International Year of Indigenous Languages”. Indigenous languages are infused with millennia of intergenerationally transmitted cultural and scientific knowledge. They are therefore key to understanding not only the deep history of their speakers, but also the environments in which they are spoken and the best ways to live sustainably therein. UNESCO states that indigenous languages “should be recognized as a strategic national resource for development, peace building and reconciliation” (https://en.iyil2019.org/about/). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.