Nicholas Evans (2) (1956–)

I studied linguistics and wanted Evans to convince me. I have given up after 80 pages, rather appalled at the idea that he regrets the lack of videos from ancient extinct languages. All very over the top.

If some of these languages were deliberately made so that my little village had a different language from their little village, maybe that is why both are now dying out.

I was trying to read this in German translation, so perhaps it reads better in English.

I think this book would be good as a textbook in an introductory linguistics course. The author is passionate about linguistics in general and the extremely obscure, dying-out languages in particular, and he has convinced me of the importance of both. I had no idea that languages could be so different, or say so much about a culture's history and mindset. This is the kind of book that might cause a young undergraduate student to seek a career in the linguistics field. I found it fascinating.

An excellent survey of the evolution of languages and why we should care that so many are on the point of dying. Evans surveys the contemporary field of linguistics for a lay audience, and shows the ways language inscripts so many aspects of culture, from the high culture of poetry to the agricultural knowledge of nomads.