I’ve read about specific instances, but in general it’s hard to get funding to arrange for linguists with the desire & expertise to go to the (often remote) pla

I’ve read about specific instances, but in general it’s hard to get funding to arrange for linguists with the desire & expertise to go to the (often remote) places where such languages are spoken, for long enough to record them thoroughly enough to be useful. Gaining the trust & desire of the people, making recordings, figuring out phonology & grammar (which native speakers may not be consciously aware of), compiling dictionaries, sometimes inventing writing systems…it can be a big undertaking for each language. And a lot of people aren’t even convinced that language death is a problem.