Saving the Manchu Language

The NY Times reports:

Ms. Meng is one of 18 residents of this isolated village in northeastern China, all over 80 years old, who, according to Chinese linguists and historians, are the last native speakers of Manchu.

Descendants of seminomadic tribesmen who conquered China in the 17th century, they are the last living link to a language that for more than two and a half centuries was the official voice of the Qing dynasty, the final imperial house to rule from Beijing and one of the richest and most powerful empires the world has known.

To read more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/world/asia/18manchu.html?_r=1&ref=asia&oref=slogin