Has much to say against the case for putting languages out of their misery, but her focus is on a point with which even the most unsentimental can surely sympathize ... Smith Galer writes powerfully ... In general, Smith Galer’s empirical examples tend toward the optimistic ... Even if we grant Smith Galer the premise that language death is always a terrible thing, it doesn’t follow that we ought to do everything in our power to stop it.
Despite its often elegiac tone, How to Kill a Language is not a work of resignation. As Smith Galer notes near the end, 'We have also witnessed astonishing, fate-reversing language revivals.' Just consider Welsh, Hawaiian, and Basque ... This can seem like one of those colossal challenges that defies any personal solution — What can I do to preserve Arctic ice? — but Smith Galer has a concrete suggestion: 'There is one small action that anyone can take to resist glottophobia, or the discrimination against other people’s languages or accents: learning a second language yourself.'
A rallying cry against linguistic extinction ... What can be done to save languages from dying? Even as the situation is critical, Smith Galer sees reason for hope in a variety of language revitalisation approaches ... This is a necessary book, with a message that English speakers need to hear.
The book traces how languages die — and who kills them. Each chapter is a case study ... Many moments of linguistic joy that transform what might otherwise be a grim read ... This is a skilfully journalistic book, but it is driven by a personal search for the mysterious language spoken between Galer’s mother and her nonna — her Italian grandmother.
How to Kill a Language, despite the cheeky title, is an optimistic book at its core. Galer pays particular attention to various projects toward language preservation and restoration ... A call to action, a plea to preserve language diversity starting with our own families, if we can ... Maybe the price of language preservation is too high, maybe it is an attempt to stymie social progress—but at least we can talk about it with our shared language.
Smith Galer takes the fear of language loss or change that haunted early lexicographers like Samuel Johnson and transforms it into a relevant, necessary call to action, encouraging readers to think about what is lost when words and worlds are homogenized.
Smith Galer weaves together heart-wrenching accounts of those who have suffered linguicide ... It makes for a spirited reconsideration of language as a natural resource that must be protected.
