Bierma writes about the Phraselator, which is a hand-held computer that records and plays phrases in different languages. It has been used in the military when translators are in short supply.
Don Thornton has begun to use it to save the dying American Indian languages. I had no idea there were 300 American Indian languages, and apparently about half are already extinct. So far the Phraselator has been used to record about 50 American Indian languages, including many with fewer than 10 speakers.
