As more and more people speak the global languages of English,Chinese, Spanish,and Arabic,other languages are rapidly disappearing. In fact, half of the 6,000-7,000 languages spoken around the world today will likely die out by the next century, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

In an effort to prevent language loss,scholars from a number of organizations — UNESCO and National Geographic among them — have for many years been documenting dying languages and the cultures they reflect.

Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Center,Yale University, who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following in that tradition. His recently published book, A Grammar of Thangmi with an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers and Their Culture, grows out of his experience living, looking and raising a family in a village in Nepal.

Documenting the Tangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalayans reaches of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. But he is not content to simply record these voices before they disappear without record.

At the University of Cambridge Turin discovered a wealth of important materials — including photographs, films, tape recordings, and field notes — which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection.

Now, through the two organizations that he has founded — the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project — Turin has started a campaign to make such documents, found in libraries and stores around the world,available not just to scholars but to the youngers.

Generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected. Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet, Turin notes, the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.

When we say “break a leg”, we don’t actually want people to break their legs. So, why do we say this interesting phrase in the first place? Have you ever stopped to think about the common phrases we use in everyday conversation? People say things like “knock on wood” and “spill the beans” all the time, along with another common idiom “break a leg”. 【小题1】 Read on to get the fascinating details.

Its meaning

【小题2】 It’s typically said to actors before they go on stage for a performance, particularly on opening night. It’s not limited to performers, though. 【小题3】

Here are some examples of how to use it in a sentence:

● “I can’t wait to see you perform tonight — break a leg! ”

● “I hear you have a big presentation at work tomorrow — break a leg.”

Its origin

【小题4】 Performers believed saying “good luck” would actually bring bad luck on stage, so they’d tell one another to “break a leg” instead. 【小题5】 Instead of breaking a leg, the performer would put on a perfect performance. It’s believed to have originated in the American theatre scene in the early 20th century. Some believe it was adapted from the German saying “Hals-und Beinbruch,” which means “neck and leg break”. That phrase may also come from the Hebrew blessing “Hatzlakha U-brakha”, which means “success and blessing”.

Now you know the interesting history behind this common idiom. If you’re explaining it to someone else, break a leg!