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The Inuits of Greenland, who are the world’s northernmost people, might only have 10 or 15 years left before climate changes and politics will force them to move and assimilate with other cultures. Only 1,000 people still speak their language, Inuktan.

Anthropologist Stephen Pax Leonard is going to live with the Inuit people for a year to record their conversations and traditional stories. Inuktan is an undocumented language.

Although most Inughuit are trilingual, also speaking Danish and Greenlandic, their primary language is still Inuktun.

“There is no doubt that this is a major linguistic challenge. … They speak a very pure form of Inuit, partly because of their geographic isolation. Their entire culture is based on a storytelling culture.”

Leonard, an anthropological linguist at Cambridge University, England, is under no doubt about the physical and cultural hurdles that face him. The average temperature is minus 25 degrees Celsius, although it can fall to minus 40 degrees Celsius in the winter.

Leornard hopes to preserve a permanent record of the soon-to-be-lost culture and language.

CNN reports on Leonard’s journey here.