How to Kill a Language

‘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

‘An essential voice’ The Guardian

‘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

‘Smith Galer reveals that language is never neutral, it is a site of power. Immersive, personal and poetically precise … This is an urgent book about who gets to shape culture, and who refuses to disappear’ MEGHA MOHAN, author of Herlands

‘I’m so glad this book exists: language preservation and revitalization are causes sorely in need of a champion’ DAVID PETERSON, author of The Art of Language Invention

‘Paints a vivid, hopeful portrait of how people around the world are staying connected to their linguistic roots against the odds. Smith Galer deftly balances the human detail with the bigger linguistic picture. Marvellous work’ GRETCHEN MCCULLOCH, author of Because Internet

Sophia is a reporter, writer and documentary maker with the BBC World Service, specialising in religion and digital culture. She is the first BBC journalist to be on TikTok and has accrued over 200,000 followers across social media. She was named as a ‘Voice of Change’ in the TikTok 100 best of 2020 and sits as an inaugural member of the TikTok Creator Council. She was also selected as a One to Watch by the Edinburgh Television Festival in 2020 and has a Webby in Social Media for Arts and Culture. This will be her first book.