A book about linguicide
As 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 dialët 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.
How To Kill A Language is the Sunday Times Book of the Week, rated 4/5 stars in The Telegraph, and is a recommended read for May from Foyles and the i paper.
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.
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. Her travels ultimately lead her back to where she began: to Italy, and the tiny mountainside village where the church bells still ring out for her Nonna.
How to Kill a Language is the story of our modern world in 10 languages. It is a vital investigation into a hidden global crisis, and a call to speak, read and write the languages of our world, before it’s too late.
A book about linguicide
As 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 dialët 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.
How To Kill A Language is the Sunday Times Book of the Week, rated 4/5 stars in The Telegraph, and is a recommended read for May from Foyles and the i paper.
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.
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. Her travels ultimately lead her back to where she began: to Italy, and the tiny mountainside village where the church bells still ring out for her Nonna.
How to Kill a Language is the story of our modern world in 10 languages. It is a vital investigation into a hidden global crisis, and a call to speak, read and write the languages of our world, before it’s too late.
Book Tour
Join us at Foyles’ flagship store for a Q&A with Sophia chaired by Herlands author and BBC correspondent Megha Mohan
London - Foyles - May 6
A lively Q&A about language, politics and storytelling with Sophia, chaired by BBC presenter Maryam Moshiri
London - Intelligence Squared - May 11
A unique club for troublemaking women - join us at The Conduit for a Q&A, where Sophia will - presumably - cause some trouble
London - The Trouble Club - 12 May
For Italian speakers and learners only; come to Sophia’s monthly Language Bar at Casa Italiana where she’ll talk about Italy’s language diversity
London - Casa Italiana - 13 May
An author talk at the Cambridge bookshop Heffer’s.
Cambridge - Heffer’s - 14 May
Chaired by linguist extraordinaire Dr Danny Bate, this Q&A will take a nerdy linguistic dive into How To Kill A Language
Oxford - Blackwell’s - 18 May
A Q&A with Sophia chaired by sociolinguist Dr Rob Drummond, who is “fascinated by the ways our voices shape who we are”
Manchester - Blackwell’s - 19 May
An author talk at Toppings bookshop.
Bath - Toppings - 21 May
Sophia will walk through how to kill a language before joining a panel with fellow authors mathematician Marcus du Sautoy and geneticist Adam Rutherford.
Hay Festival - 26 May
Sophia will chat with her pal, the poet Len Pennie, about language endangerment and minoritisation.
Edinburgh Book Festival - 15 August
UK: May 7
Published by William Collins,
an imprint of Harper Collins.
US: July 7
Published by Crown,
an imprint of Penguin Random House
Want to translate HTKAL?
Contact Emma Smith at Wylie.
