One language dies every 14 days. By the next century nearly half of the roughly 7,000 languages spoken on Earth will likely disappear, as communities abandon native tongues in favor of English, Mandarin, or Spanish. What is lost when a language goes silent?

TUVAN

The Compassion of Khoj Özeeri 

One morning in early fall Andrei Mongush and his parents began preparations for supper, selecting a black-faced, fat-tailed sheep from their flock and rolling it onto its back on a tarp outside their livestock paddock.

The construction of a 400-kilometre long railway from the city of Kyzyl to the town of Kuragino, in the Republic of Tuva, in Siberia, got under way earlier this Friday.

The project, first considered 100 years ago, is estimated at 120 billion roubles. To build the railway is quite a challenge since the construction teams will have to struggle with a hard-of-access mountainous country.

The project comprises the construction of more than 100 bridges, 14 anti-avalanche galleries and a total of six kilometres of tunnels.

"Our base is located in a picturesque corner of Tuva, in Bayan-Kol of Barun-Khemchik district, - says Anai-Khaak Saryglar. - Officially the yurt camp opened in 2010. In the Year of Tourism, our base won a grant of the Chairman of the Government of five hundred thousand rubles; we expanded the tour-base with the money, because the demand for our services increased greatly, and the base consisted of only two yurts.

Children's literary web-site "Raduga Tuvy" (Tuvan Rainbow") will be one year old in May. During this t period, a quite rich collection of stories appeared on it - more than 60 of best translations of Tuvan folklore, 10 books of prose and seven books of verse by Tuvan writers.

"Raduga Tuvy" is the fruit of collective thought and work. The best Tuvan writers gave permission for publication of their books: Mongush Kenin-Lopsan, Alexander Darzhai, Cherlig-ool Kuular, Choodu Kara-Kuske, Mariya Khadakhane, Kombu Bizhek, Ekaterina Tanova. Kyzyl-Enik Kudazhi's historical tetralogy "Ulug-Khem neugomonnyi" is published with permission of the author's granddaughter Inna Savyr.

International Scientific Center "Khoomei" published a book "Chonnun khoomeizhis - Gennadiy Tumat". The book is a collection of letters and verse of Gennadiy Tumat, (1964 - 1995), as well as reminiscences about the legendary master of throat-singing, who, together with the musicologist Zoya Kyrgys, founded the first throat-singing ensemble in Tuvan history in 1988, "Tyva". The musician and the scientist together put together the repertoire of the new group, searching for treasures in the Tuvan NIIYaLI archives.

The legendary ensemble "Tyva" gave birth to many famous stars of Tuvan khoomei: Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, Kongar-ool Ondar, Stanislav Danmaa, Evgeniy Oyun, Boris Kherlii, Ivan Saryglar, and Otkun Dostai.