Rare Tongues: The Secret Stories of Hidden Languages

Author/Contributor(s):	Gibb, Lorna
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Date:	04/22/2025
Binding:	Hardcover
Condition:	NEW

"Languages and cultures are becoming increasingly homogenous, with the resulting loss of a rich linguistic tapestry reflecting unique perspectives and ways of life. Rare Tongues tells the stories of the world's rare and vanishing languages, revealing howeach is a living testament to human resilience, adaptability, and the perennial quest for identity. Taking readers on a captivating journey of discovery, Lorna Gibb explores the histories of languages under threat or already extinct as well as those in resurgence, shedding light on their origins, development, and distinctive voices. She travels the globe--from Australia and Finland to India, the Canary Islands, Namibia, Scotland, and Paraguay--showing how these languages are not mere words and syntax butkeepers of diverse worldviews, sites of ethnic conflict, and a means for finding surprising commonalities. Readers learn the basics of how various language systems work--with vowels and consonants, whistles and clicks, tonal inflections, or hand signs--and how this kaleidoscope of self-expression carries vital information about our planet, Indigenous cultures and tradition, and the history and evolution of humankind"--