Customer Reviews

Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages

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In Wulai, the aboriginal village I live in, the cutoff is in the twenties. Those over thirty speak Tayal (also Atayal; an Austronesian language of Taiwan) as their first language. Those under twenty understand it pretty well, but rarely speak more than a few phrases. I make a point of speaking to children in my rudimentary Tayal, so they can practice ¡V and show off - without the embarrassment of being caught making a mistake. I nag parents to encourage their children to speak Tayal: if you don't, a tradition of over six thousand years will die with you. Several tribal elders have asked me to teach them how to write Tayal in roman letters. Children are elated to see their grandparents struggling with pen and paper, and this encourages them to repeat what their elders are saying. The administration started Tayal classes in Wulai Elementary, but I hear funding is being cut now that the Party feels one hour of Tayal a week is not going to bring them votes. Tayal is losing ground to Mandarin. What is to be done?

What is to be done? Spoken Here is practically a handbook for me, of things I can try, things I can avoid, in my personal crusade to impress Tayal on the next generation. The author is alert to cant, dogma, and dead-end thinking, so the reader can see the fallacies of certain viewpoints. The writing is fluid and informative. His sympathy to the speakers of these languages makes their plights come alive.

I wish books like this came with a CD. Looking at the word Tayal, did you have any clue that it is pronounced dah-YEN? If I write a Tayal word such as qsnuw or mksingut, does that give you any idea of how to pronounce it? I would love to hear what Yuchi, Wangkajunga, or Mohawk actually sound like (although a friend who has been there told me Welsh sounds like angry geese). I have listened to a couple Australian Aboriginal languages by tracking down their websites, which raises my main ¡V albeit minor - complaint about this book. In the Sources, he tells us things like "see the Web site of the Maori Language Commission" or "All these organizations have web sites." It would have burdened him very little, and given the book completeness, if he had taken the trouble to provide the http addresses for those sites!

Have you ever wondered how you would react if *your* language was threatened with extinction? Would you miss it at all? What more would you lose than words and phrases? Mark Abley tracked the world for 10 years to pursue these and related questions. His discoveries make for an intriguing read spiked with some learning about local tongues like Boro, Yuchi, Provençal or Manx.

Language is used to express the worldview of its speakers, bur does it also shape and influence it? Are the connotations that a word's meaning carries consciously passed on? Many traditional languages have in common that they are more complicated in their grammar than modern ones. Some prescribe human kinships in great detail and maintain a different vocabulary for each gender to use. Does these aspects have a bearing on the human interrelationships? The author pursues the answers from the elders, language teachers and linguistic experts. Of particular interest to him are languages that structure sentences around verbs rather than nouns, as we are used to. Placing the "action" in the centre of a phrase results in a different perspective on life, he argues, making it more inclusive of the surroundings and reducing the primary role of the self. The Boro language, spoken in northern India, has one-verb expressions that require full sentences when translated into English: "gagrom", for example, means "to search for a thing below the water by trampling" or "mokhrob" - to express anger by a sidelong glance. Mohawk must be one of the most complex languages in its use of verbs. In addition to describing the action "a verb must indicate the agent, recipient and the time of the action". There are other elements to consider too, such as the relationships to be expressed or whether it is one-time or habitual; all these components are represented in a series of pre- and suffixes.

Another aspect of the diversity of language that captivates the author, is the naming of objects, like the three or more distinct names for "blue-tongue lizard" in Wangkajunga, an Australian Aborigine language. Nobody seems to knows how they differ from each other. Abley discusses with a Mohawk elder the meaning of the central concepts of Iroquois law: peace, power and righteousness. All three have complex connotations that for non-speakers require detailed explanations. The last concept, for example, can also mean "beautiful" or "good" as well as "righteousness". This is but one example that underscores a unique worldview of its speakers that is influenced by language. In turn, the speakers' perspective continues to influence the evolving language. Some languages are flexible and adjust, developing terms reflecting modern life. Still, others are helpless in this regard and are overrun by the majority language or the universal language, English, the "Walmart" of communication.

While Abley discusses certain linguistic aspects of the selected languages in some detail, Spoken Here is primarily a human interest story and quite removed from dry technical linguistics. The author describes his travels to interesting places, his meetings with scientists and researchers. He commends their work on recording a local threatened language and marvels with them at the grammatical intricacies of another. His primary interest are the individuals who attempt to save or rekindle their (grand)parents' tongues. He describes their surroundings, their community and profiles them with their aspirations and dreams. Through him, we meet elders who recall a time when their language was alive and well. Most activists feel that their language is a vital part of their identity that is worth saving. Others, often the younger people, feel motivated to pick theirs up, almost like a new hobby.

Will the threatened languages survive? Some will, he argues, and gives Manx, Welsh and Mohawk as examples. Political reasons, the ambition to restore some autonomy from a strong neighbour, play an important part in the efforts to rekindle a local language. He compares language diversity with biological diversity of plants and animals. Both are in danger of being eroded or destroyed. The world will be a poorer place without them.

Abley's account of his encounters make an enjoyable read. His selection of places he visited and languages to explore was to a degree arbitrary and sometimes coincidental, such as the discovery of Boro. He pursued leads from people and from respective studies that intrigued him. At times the reader might lose interest in a particularly detailed description of political events surrounding an endangered language issue. Africa, a continent extremely rich in traditional and threatened local languages, was unfortunately not on his travel routes. Experiences there might well have enriched the author's perspectives and deepened the readers' exposure to the challenges and opportunities of Africa's extraordinary diversity. For anybody interested in finding out more about the diverse world of language, this is a good start. [Friederike Knabe]

The viral-like spread of English as the lingua franca of the modern world has had many disturbing effects, not the least of which is its corrosive effect on hundreds of languages spoken by comparatively small populations. Canadian journalist Abley isn't so interested in detailing how this has happened (it's pretty obvious that the proliferation of satellite television and the Internet over the last decade, coupled with American hegemony is largely to blame), but rather seeks to visit these communities to see what efforts are being made to preserve native tongues. Long chapters on specific regions (Northern Australia, Oklahoma, The Isle of Man, Provence, Quebec, Wales) are separated by briefer interludes on various related themes. This is a fascinating topic, and one I somehow expected to find more interesting than Abley makes it.

It's hard to put a finger on why the book was a bit of a letdown. Abley is scrupulously fair-minded in his reportage, and has clearly done a great deal of research. He's careful not to blindly place language preservationists on a pedestal, and asks some genuinely hard questions. Although here's clearly a champion of these disappearing languages and draws a distinct parallel between biodiversity and linguistic diversity, he doesn't shy from shining the light on the failings or more objectionable sides of preservationists. That said, there are a few shortcomings. One of these is that he never really discusses how this whole issue worked in the past. When the Roman Empire ran amok, did Latin replace indigenous speech? More problematic is his focus on languages developed nations. For example, the spread of Spanish in South America, and English and French in Africa have had profound influences, but ABley sticks to North America, Western Europe, and Australia. Finally, the prose-despite noble efforts to inject humor at times-remains rather dry throughout. Some of the chapters run on and on, and would have benefited from judicious editing.

Still, it's hard to fault a book on such an important topic, and the mix of sociology, travelogue, linguistics, and history is probably the best approach to the topic. Recommended for those with a deep interest in the whole wide world and/or language, others may find it slow going.

I've read other books that discuss endangered languages, such as David Crystal's _Language Death_ and John McWhorter's _The Power of Babel_, but this book discusses the issue in a much more specific way through a series of encounters with speakers of threatened languages. Abley travels to Australia, the U.S., France, and the U.K. and considers Yiddish and Mohawk against the background of the struggle between French and English in Quebec, where he lives. There is a chapter called, "Don't Vori, Be Khepi" which describes how English is infiltrating the major national languages like French, German, and Russian that wonders if all languages are ultimately threatened by English. I made this book my staff recommendation in the bookstore where I work but there was something that kept me from being as enthusiastic as I wanted to be about this book. Then I realized that the author only traveled to developed countries and didn't look at how languages competed in a multilingual environment as they do in India or in African countries where there are colonial languages that link to the world, powerful national languages spoken by many people, but not the majority; and then a multitude of other languages. The closest he comes to this is in his discussion of the competition between standard English, Creole, and the many Australian Aboriginal languages. He does include an interesting chapter on the "Verbs of Bodo" which lists concepts expressed by single verbs in an Indian language that have no English equivalents, but this was all drawn from a single book and didn't involve any travel. After visiting so many languages on the verge of extinction, Abley wanted to find a place where a minority language was thriving and ended up in Wales which inspires the liveliest chapter in the book. As much as I wanted to be sympathetic to the struggle to preserve languages, in one case where a traditional taboo prevents two of the last speakers of a language from talking to each other, my first reaction was "F**k them if they're that maladaptive." But I'm still rooting for the other languages.

From my viewpoint, a book of this sort is almost bound to end with a somewhat middling review. First, it is comprised of several sections, which although clearly tied together by the same issue are really wholly independent of one another. As is often the case in these sort of things, some sections stand out as particularly strong, some as merely average, and others as a bit weak. Secondly, the book is clearly not focused so much on the linguistics, yet cannot cover the topic without resorting to some linguistics. It is not solely a travel book, yet because the author does in fact journey to these dying languages it is partly a travelogue. Partly this, partly that--it is difficult for a book to overcome that sort of mongrel construction.
So yes, this book has its weak moments, its points where you wish he either delved more into the languages themselves or more into the settings/societies. But if Abley hasn't hit a homerun here, the book is more often successful than not and it does have some standout moments.
Language death is often discussed in abstract terms and one of the strengths of this book is that the author shows us the impact on actual living, speaking (for now) people. This has the effect of making the loss of such languages as Provencal or the aboriginal languages of Australia be felt more sharply by the reader. The sadness, the resigned weariness of these last few speakers of a dying language is hauntingly conveyed in their conversations with the author, lending the book an elegaic tone throughout much of its pages. Few of these stories will have happy endings and Abley's interviewees face that fact bluntly, as does the reader. But if most of these languages are past the point of no return, Abley also does a good job of showing some of the success stories, though without shying away from the tenuousness of the successes. The sections on "revived" languages balance the book's tone somewhat, and even the in not-so-optimistic sections, Abley does a good job of lightening the tone now and then.
The same good sense of balance is shown through Abley's care in not "deifying" those struggling to preserve the dying languages. It would have been easy to paint them as saintly underdogs automatically gaining the readers' admiration and sympathies, but Abley is unafraid to point out the negatives (in-fighting among language advocates, hints of xenophobia, use of violence, strangely poor teaching techniques) as well as obviously, the more positive aspects of fighting to retain a language's existence and use.
As mentioned, there are some weaknesses. Some sections seem a bit long. Some don't have the power or intimacy of the stronger ones. And often one wishes for more examples, or more examination of the languages themselves, more discussion of the difficulty of translation or the way language conveys a thought process or a perspective. All of this is touched upon in each section, it's just some are covered more fully than others. A more frequent aid to pronunciation would have been helpful as well; I at least found it frustrating to be reading about words and phrases I had no idea how to say. As I said, overall the book though uneven succeeds more than it fails and stands as a good, more personal and emotional introduction to a topic which will one assumes will only come up more and more often as English continues to encroach as the dominating language. Recommended.

This book contains an amazing amount of surprising facts, everything from old proverbs in the Manx language to lizards in the Australian outback. I was a little afraid that it would be depressing to read, but the book is so well-written and even funny at times that I wasn't depressed at all. The author points out that in spite of the pressure of English, languages don't have to die if their speakers are really determined they should carry on. It's very accessible to non-linguists because the author doesn't talk down to readers or use academic jargon. Highly recommended.

SPOKEN HERE: Travels Among Endangered Languages is a poigant story of journeys on the theme of language diversity undertaken by Mark Abley. His survey includes the loss of indigenous languages in Australia and North America and the dwindling minority languages of Europe.

The loss, becoming ever faster, of the world's minority languages is a true tragedy, and Abley is to be commended for his effort. There are many fine points about his work. Unlike the average academic discussion of language diversity, he shows the reader some of the actual people whose lives are being affected by the loss of their ancestral languages. He shows that language death isn't limited merely to small disadvantaged tribes in the third world, but happens with us here in the West where Occitan, Breton, Welsh, etc. are facing challenges. I was especially happy that he dispels the myth--propagated by the artificial language's movement--that Esperanto exists to promote language diversity by quoting a statement by the iniciator himself, L.L. Zamenhof, that language diversity is bad and Esperanto was meant to destroy it.

However, so very much of SPOKEN HERE is objectionable. Abley is not a trained linguist, and he makes mistake after mistake that even the greenest student of linguistics would capture. For example, he dredges up the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, the now quaint notion that one's language shapes one's worldview. He makes blanket statements about how all the languages in the world are tending towards simplicity; it may be historically true for the Indo-European languages, but many other world languages, for example Mandarin Chinese, are developing more complex morphology. He also seems to think that some languages can be more "ancient" than others, for he writes that some languages were spoken in Australia when Sumer and Babylon were ascendent. Well, guess what, our language was spoken then too, but it was called Proto-Germanic and English is a natural continuation of it. Languages don't appear ex nihilo, so none can be more ancient than others.

Finally, while Abley might not present the old urban myth of Eskimo words for snow, but he gets close enough with his enthusiasm about other languages of people in the developing world. Now, no one is expected to know everything, and Abley could be forgiven for lacking formal training, but he discounts real linguists as just eggheads who use too many "big words" and apparently he had no trained person proofread the work before publication. In some places he insolently puts his own opinions above those of respected scholars, as in a passage where he writes "Chomsky may have made an important contribution, but I think...".

As a result of this plethora of urban myths, I cannot really recommend the book. If you are unsettled by the loss of the world's language diversity--and you should be--read LANGUAGE DEATH by David Crystal, a trained linguist who still can related to the average reader with a gentle tone and not too much specialized terminology.

Mark Abley's topic is languages that are on the verge of extinction, and what people are doing to keep these languages alive and vibrant. Not all regions of the world get equal coverage: The author focuses on Canada, Australia, and western Europe. Abley is originally from Montreal, and he approaches the topic with a Canadian perspective that will intrigue some readers but flummox others. For instance, in one incident where a Montreal English-speaking Jewish person and a French-speaking Quebecois argue with each other, some non-Canadian readers might not appreciate the historical antagonism between these groups, each of whom perceives itself as being oppressed by the other.

Languages receiving the greatest attention are the aboriginal languages of Canada and Australia, Hebrew, Yiddish, Manx, Welsh, and Provencal. Abley does a good job of discussing linguistics in lay terms, and emphasizes how language structure affects the way we think. The sole drawback is that the book took on a repetitive tone after awhile. In some ways this is a travel narrative, but the emphasis is on the languages themselves and the people trying to keep them alive.

Having read the professional reviews I was eager to get this book. I then read through the Amazon reader reviews and almost changed my mind. Glad I didn't. I won't say that none of the readers' criticisms are valid (see entries below), but I think it's too easy to fall into the Princess and the Pea mindset when evaluating "somebody else's" work. A reader owes it to the writer to try to understand the writer's angle (yes, everybody has one), then evaluate the work based on that, not whether or not it is the same as your own. Hence, what Abley does well is to take you around the globe to sample life in remote areas where native languages are severely threatened. He doesn't just address the language itself, but shows why the language matters . . . showing glimpses of residents' lives, filling out "issues" with flesh and blood. The end result is a mix of travelogue and commentary on linguistic food chain processes. If you have read extensively in this area, this may not be the best choice for you because it does not offer great depth in any one area. If, however, you read widely and wish for a volume that helps to "connect the dots" on important and evolving issues across the globe, then this book is likely to please.

That's the question asked by Scottish poet W. S. Graham, quoted by Mark Abley.

It's another way of stating what's sometimes called the "Safir-Whorf hypothesis" - - the idea that your worldview is partly determined by the specifics of the language you speak. And anyone who has seriously tried to translate from one language (i.e., culture) into another knows there's some truth to this.

Safir and Whorf have been replaced by Noam Chomsky's generative grammar and Steven Pinker's "language instinct" and the assertion that no language is inherently more capable of expressing an idea than any other language, which of course is true. But some languages NEED to say certain things, so when they do, their grammar or vocabulary or syntax will let them do a better job of it.

A Welsh poet to Mark Abley: "In English, when you say the word 'mountain,' so many things come to mind . . . But when you say 'mynydd,' a very clear picture comes to mind: what I can see on the other side of the valley."

Mark Abley traveled to places all over the developing and developed world where languages are in danger of dying out, and where they're being reinvigorated. But his story comes alive especially when he talks about different aboriginal languages and cultures that are in danger of being overwhelmed by "big" languages and culture, especially English.

Abley makes it clear that it's not just linguistic diversity that's at stake. You could make a case that it's better for everyone to speak just a few (or even one) language, though I think you could refute it. (Oddly enough, I've only ever seen this monolinguistic argument asserted by people who happen to speak the language in question.) But it's not just minority languages that are threatened. The existence of different cultures and the natural world itself are at stake.

Linguistic diversity is tied up with cultural diversity and biological diversity. Globalization can threaten all three. And human beings need all three kinds to survive.

Linguist Danielle Cyr talks about "imposing our notion of truth" by letting these languages die. Other people's truths might provide a way of looking at a problem that would save us all.

Just as someday we might need more than the one species of corn an American corporation grows, or some of the species of fish that have already disappeared from the ocean.

Half the six thousand languages that are spoken now will be gone by the end of this century. "We" (the global culture that knows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bono, and, this week at least, Michael Richards) may not need any one of these languages in particular. But we need to know about as many as possible. The more ways we know that people HAVE thought, the more ways we know it's possible TO think.

Some scientists think that language developed in humans along with intelligence, and that they reinforced each other. That we're homo loquens.

We need to know how languages work so we know what we are.