This multilingual collection of stories encompasses a broad range of minority endangered languages from diverse world cultures. It constitutes an innovative way of introducing the reader to these languages, many of them very little-known, or on the verge of extinction. These tales, most of them previously unpublished or inaccessible, are made available for the first time with interlinear morphemic glossing, English translation and background context. They provide linguists and researchers with revealing insight into the lexical and morpho-syntactic dynamics of the languages.
Beyond linguists and academic researchers, this collection will also appeal to a wider audience. For these stories handed down through generations are united by a common theme: the Bear – a figure prominent in myths and fairy tales worldwide, invested with a diverse range of values, cultural codes and legends by minority cultures. Through representations of the Bear, these stories provide a precious source of community values – beliefs and visions in danger of extinction along with the languages that transmit them.
