The first stages of fieldwork for a project to help preserve China's ethnic minority languages and dialects, including some on the verge of being wiped out, has been completed, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE).
Specialists worked in 81 fieldwork sites in ethnic minority regions and 53 sites with different Chinese dialects to help preserve the languages by collecting and documenting their use.
The MOE and the State Language Commission launched the project in May 2015 with the goal of collecting and preserving the languages over 5 years.
The project is also designed to augment and streamline the current multi-media database of Chinese languages compiled in 2008.
In 2015, the preservation project began from places where dialects and ethnic minority languages are in dire need of conservation, including Shanxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and Chongqing. It will expand to more localities later.
The MOE urged localities to build their regional museums of language culture.
