"Before World War II, Douglas Oliver (then at Harvard) collected a word list of several hundred words in Arawa village. He told me that men, women, & children spoke the language then (1938-9). In 1973, I went to Arawa and located a speaker who knew the language partially. In 1975, I got a letter from that village asking me to send the language back. The writer said his uncle had died before the writer of the letter could learn the language."