Full name: Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages

Author: Mark Abley Year: 2003 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Non Fiction, Travel, Anthology, History Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780618565832 0618565833

In Spoken Here, Mark Abley takes us on a world tour from the Arctic Circle to Oklahoma to Australia in a fervent quest to document some of the world's most endangered languages. His mission is urgent: Of the six thousand languages spoken in the world today, only six hundred may survive into the next century. Abley visits the exotic and frequently remote locales that are home to fading languages and constructs engaging and entertaining portraits of some of the last living speakers of these tongues. Throughout this exhilarating travelogue, he points out that the same forces that put biological species at risk -- development, globalization, loss of habitat -- are also threatening human languages, and with them, something very basic about their speakers' cultures. Similar books: How Language Works by David Crystal Through the Language Glass by Guy Deutscher The Power of Babel by John McWhorter Biting the Wax Tadpole by Elizabeth Little Language Play by David Crystal The Loom of Language by Frederick Bodmer Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner Language Made Plain by Anthony Burgess Babel No More by Michael Erard The First Word by Christine Kenneally A Little Book of Language by David Crystal The Languages of the World by Kenneth Katzner The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher Language Myths by Laurie Bauer The Story of Language by Mario Pei Bury Me Standing by Isabel Fonseca In Search of the Old Ones by David Roberts Bastard Tongues by Derek Bickerton The Harmless People by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas The Ra Expeditions by Thor Heyerdahl