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On the Death and Life of Languages (Odile Jacob Books) (Hardback)
$37.76 - Save $1.99 (5%) - RRP $39.75 Free delivery worldwide (to United States and
all these other countries) Usually dispatched within 48 hours | |Short Description for On the Death and Life of LanguagesFocusing on the relationship of language to culture and the world of ideas, this book shows how languages are themselves crucial repositories of culture; the traditions, proverbs, and knowledge of our ancestors reside in the language we use.
Full description- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Published: 02 October 2009
- Format: Hardback 368 pages
- See: Full bibliographic data
- Categories: Language: History & General Works | Linguistics | Sociolinguistics | Social & Cultural Anthropology
- ISBN 13: 9780300137330 ISBN 10: 0300137338
- Sales rank: 1,084,948
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Full description for On the Death and Life of 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 Hagege 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, Hagege 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, Hagege likens languages to bonfires of social behaviour that leave behind sparks even after they die; from these sparks languages can be rekindled and made to live again.
