There is a lovely short video at this link http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/04/28/nyregion/1247467719180/city-of-endangered-languages.html?WT.mc_id=VI-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M147b-ROS-0510-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click of a dedicated linguist in New York City named Daniel Kaufman.  He has founded the Urban Fieldstation for Linguistic Research in New York City.  Kaufman made the fascinating discovery that New York City is home to speakers from some of the most rare and endangered languages in the world, and he set out to capture, document and study them.  It is a wonderful act of preservation for languages so far flung, remote or endangered that within 20 or 30 years these, along with the richness of the cultures that created them, may vanish in a blink.  Human culture lives through language.  When the language goes away, an irreplaceable part of human history goes with it.  Hooray for people like Daniel Kaufman!  Save the Whales or Save the Languages–it’s all to the benefit of our planet and humankind.