How to Kill a Language (eagrán crua)

Leabhar i mBéarla faoi bhás agus marú teangacha mionlaithe.

Moladh fhoireann An Siopa Leabhar:

In ainneoin an teidil, níl an leabhar seo chun tú a threorú chun teanga a mharú. Tríd an leabhar seo tugann Smith Galer léargas suntasach ar theangacha atá imeallaithe nó i mbaol a ndíothaithe. Is leabhar tarraingteach é seo atá lán le hábhar machnaimh ar theangacha. Léirítear an tslí a bhfuil níos mó i gceist le teanga ná díreach slí atá muid in ann cumarsáid a dhéanamh le chéile. Tá an t-ádh linn go bhfuil an beocht ag baint leis an nGaeilge; cad faoi theangacha nach bhfuil an t-ádh céanna orthu? [Stiofán]

Cur síos i mBéarla:

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.

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. 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 an impassioned investigation into a hidden global crisis, and a call to speak, read and write the languages of our world, before it’s too late.