How to Kill a Language

Power, Resistance and the Race to Save Our Words

De: Sophia Smith Galer

Narrado por: Sophia Smith Galer

'Moving, beautiful and important' FINANCIAL TIMES

'Punchy and persuasive' SUNDAY TIMES

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.

'An extremely moving, passionate plea' CAL FLYN

‘Beautiful, thought-provoking, and compelling' SUSIE DENT

©2026 Sophia Smith Galer (P)2026 HarperCollins Publishers

Reseñas de la Crítica

'Punchy and persuasive … speaking an endangered language is an act of defiance and connection – of love' SUNDAY TIMES

‘Moving, beautiful and important … The narrative grips from the outset … The driving spirit of How to Kill a Language is, despite its title, not death, but life’ FINANCIAL TIMES

‘A rallying cry against linguistic extinction … This is a necessary book, with a message that English speakers need to hear’ NEW STATESMAN

‘Urgent and timely … what animates it above all is the curiosity and pleasure of language learning – a curiosity that is its own form of hope’ THE TELEGRAPH

'An essential voice' THE GUARDIAN

' Galer casts a bright light on the massive linguistic diversity that the world seems set to lose … Every language that dies takes with it such fascinating stories' NEW YORK TIMES

'[A] deep dive into 10 of the 7,000 languages predicted to be extinct by the turn of the century, spun here into a fascinating account' THE i PAPER

'Everyone should read this book. Impressively researched, full of empathy and a page-turner to boot' OLIA HERCULES

‘An extremely moving, passionate plea. 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

'Erudite, heart-wrenching … a spirited reconsideration' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

‘Shines an intimate light on a pressing issue … 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' 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

A journey

The author take the reader (and listener) on a journey around the globe, and thought time. Ehile keeping the book extremely informative, she makes sure that the Life of each language and culture is transmitted through and felt by the reader and listener. And finally one is left with the reminder that we aren not passive actors in the preservation of languages, and gives me the conviction to play a role in the preservation of languages.