How To Kill A Language (power, Resistance And The Race To Save Our Words)

By (author) Sophia Smith Galer
Moving, beautiful and important' FINANCIAL TIMES, BEST SUMMER BOOKS 2026'Punchy and persuasive' SUNDAY TIMESAs Sophia Smith Galer's Nonna lay dying, she realised it wasn't just a beloved grandmother she was losing - it was the language she spoke, too. From Northern Italy, she spoke a dialet that Sophia, like so many children and grandchildren of migrants, can understand but can't speak. With the death of the language, Sophia would lose a culture, a history, an inheritance - a whole world.This tragedy reaches far beyond her family. Globally we are witnessing an unprecedented mass extinction event. By the end of this century half of the world's 7000 languages will be gone, killed by war, climate breakdown, migration, nationalism or neglect, along with the vital knowledge that they have sustained for centuries.Award-winning journalist Smith Galer has journeyed across continents and generations to report from this disappearing world. From Ghana to Greece, Ecuador to Oman, California to the UK, she meets people experiencing this loss at first hand - but also campaigners and linguists who prove that a multilingual future is still possible.