How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words
How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words
How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words
Description
Description
An urgent, globe-spanning exploration of languages at risk, from Kichwa to Ukrainian, that asks: What do we lose--culturally, politically, and personally--when a language is silenced? "A vivid, hopeful portrait of how people around the world are staying connected to their linguistic roots."--Gretchen McCulloch, author of Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language Languages can be killed in many ways: war, the climate crisis, nationalism, and even quiet choices made at the dinner table. Around the world, an unprecedented shift is drawing speakers toward national and global lingua francas. For some, that means losing the language of parents or grandparents; for many, it is a permanent farewell to systems that carry knowledge, culture, and belonging. With half of our 7,000 languages due to disappear this century, linguicide is one of the most pressing cultural emergencies of our age. In How to Kill a Language, journalist Sophia Smith Galer travels across continents and generations to chart this phenomenon. In Ecuador, she sees firsthand how shame deters parents from passing Kichwa onto their children. In Oman, she learns about languages with roots older than Arabic but never officially recognized. And in Italy, she searches for her Nonna's dialët, which is vanishing from diaspora communities and Italy itself. But languages can also be reclaimed: We meet the Karuk tribe of California, pioneering a grassroots language immersion program, and the storytellers challenging the criminalization of Kurdish. And in her discussion of Hebrew, Smith Galer reckons with the unintended consequences of raising a language seemingly from the grave. Part investigation, part travelogue from a disappearing world, How to Kill a Language exposes the true costs of this mass extinction event. Brought to life by vivid storytelling and Smith Galer's own experience with language loss, it's a fierce rallying cry for a multilingual future.
About the Author
About the Author
Sophia Smith Galer is an award-winning journalist who has reported for the BBC and VICE News around the world. She studied Spanish and Arabic at Durham University, and in 2022 British Vogue selected her as one of the 25 most influential women in the UK.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"Fascinating . . . [Smith] Galer casts a bright light on the massive linguistic diversity that the world seems set to lose."--The New York Times "Punchy and persuasive . . . [with] many moments of linguistic joy."--The Times (UK) "[A] moving, beautiful and important book . . . The narrative grips from the outset. . . . The story she tells is profound and often tragic."--Financial Times "How to Kill a Language paints a vivid, hopeful portrait of how people around the world are staying connected to their linguistic roots against the odds. Sophia Smith Galer deftly balances the human detail with the bigger linguistic picture. Marvelously done."--Gretchen McCulloch, author of Because Internet "A rallying cry against linguistic extinction . . . This is a necessary book, with a message that English speakers need to hear."--The New Statesman "Sophia Smith Galer shines an intimate light on a pressing issue. How to Kill a Language tours the world with a personal touch, revealing the powerfully human stakes behind language death and revitalization."--Adam Aleksic, author of Algospeak "Urgent and timely . . . How to Kill a Language could easily have become a counsel of despair. Instead, despite its clear-sighted views on the outlook for many languages, what animates it above all is the curiosity and pleasure of language learning--a curiosity that is its own form of hope."--The Telegraph "An extremely moving, passionate plea to protect linguistic diversity. A language is more than a dictionary or a system of grammar: It is an archive, a culture, a symbol, and a mode of being. Sophia Smith Galer's fascinating book digs down into what it really means to translate, document, conserve, comprehend, and colonize."--Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment "How to Kill a Language hits the intersection of language and power as few other books have, with vivid reporting of how 'linguicide's broad scythe' is cutting through communities worldwide."--Ross Perlin, author of Language City "A love letter to languages. These ten stories locate their languages in a context of personal heritage, identity, and culture in a way that is both intellectually rigorous and yet profoundly moving."--David Crystal, author of How Language Works "Beautiful, thought-provoking, and compelling."--Susie Dent, author of Guilty by Definition "How to Kill a Language both demystifies and sharply contextualizes linguicide by providing not only the reasons why languages die but also the stories of the speakers and communities whose languages are lost. I'm so glad this book exists: Language preservation and revitalization are causes sorely in need of a champion."--David Peterson, author of The Art of Language Invention "Essential . . . A relevant, necessary call to action." --Library Journal, starred review "A sobering, urgent call for action to save a thousand tongues while we can."--Kirkus Reviews "Heart-wrenching . . . a spirited reconsideration of language as a natural resource that must be protected."--Publishers Weekly
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Pub date:
2026-07-07
Length:
304 pages
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