This article first describes the vitality of rTa'u – one of the languages of the Ethnic Corridor region of Western Sichuan Province. Employing UNESCO’s nine-factor model of language vitality, the assay finds rTa'u to be endangered and in acute need of documentation. It then claims that linguists have a role to play in bolstering this endangered language, by employing glottonyms that are important to the community and consistent with their professed ethnic identity. After assaying the two most commonly employed names for the language in the literature – Ergong and Horpa –, it is proposed that linguists should from now on employ the preferred glottonym rTa'u.