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On the Death and Life of Languages - Hagege (Hagège), Claude; Gladding, Jody; Editions Odile Jacob - Yale University Press
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Aug 31, 2009
384 p., 5 1/2 x 8 1/4
ISBN: 9780300137330
ISBN-10: 0300137338
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Cloth: $30.00
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- Related Categories
- Science
Literary Studies
Social Science
Religion
History
- Series Information
- An Odile Jacob Book
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On the Death and Life of Languages
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Claude Hagège; Translated by Jody Gladding
Click here to listen to the author discussing the disappearance of tribal languages.
Twenty-five languages die each year; at this pace, half the world’s five thousand languages will disappear within the next century. In this timely book, Claude Hagège seeks to make clear the magnitude of the cultural loss represented by the crisis of language death. By focusing on the relationship of language to culture and the world of ideas, Hagège shows how languages are themselves crucial repositories of culture; the traditions, proverbs, and knowledge of our ancestors reside in the language we use. His wide-ranging examination covers all continents and language families to uncover not only how languages die, but also how they can be revitalized—for example in the remarkable case of Hebrew. In a striking metaphor, Hagège likens languages to bonfires of social behavior that leave behind sparks even after they die; from these sparks languages can be rekindled and made to live again.
Claude Hagège is the Chair of Linguistic Theory at the Collège de France in Paris. He is the author of more than fifteen books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Gold Medal from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Jody Gladding is an award-winning poet and translator, and author of Stone Crop, which appeared in the Yale Younger Poets Series.
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