It follows two linguists, Greg Anderson of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages[2] and David Harrison of Swarthmore College,[3] as they travel around the world to collect recordings of some of the last speakers of several moribund (dying) languages: Chulym in Siberia; Chemehuevi in Arizona, U.S.; Sora in Odisha, India; and Kallawaya in Bolivia.

[1] Seth Kramer, one of the directors, describes how he first got the idea for The Linguists when, in Vilnius, Lithuania, he could not read Yiddish inscriptions on a path in spite of his Jewish heritage.

[4] During this time, the cast and crew travelled to numerous remote areas that one reporter describes as "godforsaken,"[5] and coped with physical ailments such as altitude sickness.

[5] In the process, they travel to the Andes mountains in South America, to villages in Siberia, to English boarding schools in Odisha, India, and to an American Indian reservation in Arizona.

[9] The film has been lauded as "the talk of the town at Sundance;"[10] "a fascinating journey;"[11] "funny, enlightening and ultimately uplifting;"[12] "a hoot;"[13] and “shaggy and bittersweet.”[14] While it received some minor criticism for choppy, confusing editing,[1][8] the subject matter has been called "fascinating"[8] and "compelling,"[15] and the spirit of the film's protagonists has been compared to Indiana Jones.