From Publishers Weekly
There are roughly 6,000 languages in use in the world today, most of them spoken by a tiny number of people-further proof of humanity's ability to generate intoxicating variety. Sadly, the processes of linguistic imperialism may still be as strong as they have ever been; expansion of the major world languages, particularly English, is, according to Abley, likely to bring about the elimination of most of these languages by century's end. Canadian journalist Abley shrewdly frontloads his book with some of the most exotic languages before moving on to better-known cases (which are also considerably less at risk) such as Proven‡al, Yiddish and Welsh. Readers who think they "get" how languages work may be startled by the considerable deviation from Western norms: for instance, Murrinh-Patha, spoken in Australia, boasts a bewilderingly complex system of pronouns; Mi'kmaq, from eastern Canada and Maine, and Boro, a northern Indian tongue, all but eschew nouns. To read these accounts of dwindling languages-and their often forlorn, marginalized speakers-is to gain insight into the powerful colonial forces still in play. Abley's informal approach makes this more a travel book than a language book; while describing the people and places in affecting detail, he sometimes stints in depicting the languages. Abley also sometimes conflates the extinction of a language with that of the people who speak it; however, his contention rings true that the disappearance of these languages represents "a loss beyond estimation." This generous, sorrow-tinged book is an informative and eloquent reminder of a richness that may not exist much longer.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The topic was interesting and has definitely left me wanting to know more about all the tiny languages of the world. But the book itself was kind of a slog. First, the author is Canadian and the book had over-much Canadian focus to be of general interest to this American reader. For example, the chapter on Yiddish focused in large part on the Jewish community of Montreal. A sort of interesting peak at an unfamiliar community, but maybe not the best place location for a case study on the future of Yiddish.

Also, the author admits that he's not a linguist and has not formal background or training. This shows throuughout the book. The author frequently quotes passages from linguistic texts mostly in a "look how complicated this stuff is" manner rather than in a helpful or explanatory way. I sometimes believed quotes were included because the author wanted to demonstrate just how hard he worked to put the book together.

Sent as part of the Ballyswapper exchange on Book Obsessed.

Another wishlist book!

Thank you, Supertalya, the book arrived yesterday in fact the entire box of books arrived. thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Couldn't get into this book. I will release it.

Enjoy! KTM book for Allergic to "A" release challenge 2020