How to Kill a Language
Power, Resistance and the Race to Save Our Words
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How to Kill a Language
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Narrated by:
‘Beautiful, thought-provoking, and compelling' SUSIE DENT
'An extremely moving, passionate plea' CAL FLYN
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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.
'Everyone should read this book. Impressively researched, full of empathy and a page-turner to boot' OLIA HERCULES
©2026 Sophia Smith Galer (P)2026 HarperCollins PublishersCritic reviews
‘A rallying cry against linguistic extinction … This is a necessary book, with a message that English speakers need to hear’ NEW STATESMAN
'An essential voice' THE GUARDIAN
'Everyone should read this book. Impressively researched, full of empathy and a page-turner to boot' OLIA HERCULES
‘An extremely moving, passionate plea. A language is more than a dictionary or a system of grammar: it is an archive, a culture, a symbol. This fascinating book digs down into what it really means to translate, conserve, comprehend, colonise’ CAL FLYN, author of Islands of Abandonment
‘I have long marvelled at the work of Sophia Smith Galer … she is a passionate advocate for language diversity – most recently in her fascinating new book’ PANDORA SYKES
‘Sophia's curiosity and passion for language take us on a journey of linguistic discovery, leading us through the lessons of the past and the reality of the present, to the opportunities of the future’ LEN PENNIE, author of Poyums
‘Shines an intimate light on a pressing issue … tours the world with a personal touch, revealing the powerfully human stakes behind language death and revitalization’ ADAM ALEKSIC, author of Algospeak
'Hits the intersection of language and power as few other books have … Sophia Smith Galer is the rare journalist who listens closely to endangered languages and brings them to life on the page' ROSS PERLIN, author of Language City
‘This is the best book on language endangerment I have ever read. A love letter to languages … both intellectually rigorous and yet profoundly moving’ DAVID CRYSTAL, author of Language Death
'Paints a vivid, hopeful portrait of how people around the world are staying connected to their linguistic roots against the odds. Marvellous work' GRETCHEN MCCULLOCH, author of Because Internet
'A sobering, urgent call for action to save a thousand tongues while we can' KIRKUS