The work of 33-year-old Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi is as poetic as it is technically challenging — covering topics ranging from government corruption to the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests, he channels the voice of Iran’s disillusioned youth. This week, a revolutionary court in Isfahan overruled a previous court decision granting leniency for Salehi, and sentenced him to death.
Humans speak 6,000 languages, but half of them will disappear within the next 50 years. Even today, some ancient tongues have only one remaining speaker. The new PBS film, “Language Matters,” looks at the languages that are struggling to survive.