BEIJING, April 17: China has launched a nine million yuan (1.08 million dollar) bid to save what is believed to be the world’s only women-only language, which is rapidly heading for extinction, state media said Wednesday.

China hopes to preserve the language, spoken only by elder women of the Yao ethnic group in Hunan province’s Jiangyong county, by setting up a protection zone and a museum, Xinhua said.

The museum will house written examples of the language, which has 1,200 characters with 700 still in use.

The move follows complaints from experts that much of the language’s written heritage, mainly preserved on paper fans and silks, has already been destroyed.—AFP