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SPOKEN HERE

Name: SPOKEN HERE
Author: Mark Abley
ISBN: 0-618-23649-X

TRAVELS AMONG THREATENED LANGUAGES

by Mark Abley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 6, 2003

A humanistic approach to linguistics and a scintillating read. (source notes)

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Canadian journalist Abley tracks with painstaking, intrepid care languages tottering on the edge of extinction, from Australia to Native America.

The aggressive incursion of English as the universal language of business, education, and entertainment has silenced many other tongues that formerly thrived in tight, regional pockets around the world. Here, the author valiantly sets out to unearth the existence of the most notable of these and record their decline or, in a few spectacular instances, their dogged resurrection. Of the 417 languages listed as “nearly extinct,” 138 are in Australia, and Abley begins his journey on the remote northern coast of this continent with the dwindling ancient tongue of Mati Ke, spoken by a handful of Aboriginal elders. The author repeatedly ponders two key questions: If all languages are created equal, each reflecting a distinct organization of one’s world, then do some simply deserve to die out? Why should we care about their loss? In northeastern Oklahoma, home to descendants of the powerful Creek Nation who speak Yuchi, Abley records the locals’ last-ditch attempts to keep alive their ancestral tongue in the face of their children’s apathy. Most dear to the author’s Welsh-descended heart is his chronicle of the grassroots revival of six Celtic languages, specifically Manx and Welsh, whose speakers displayed a bloody-minded tribalism despite the English decree that their languages were “doomed.” While militant practice of one’s native language might seem the only way to save it, Abley also offers the example of Provençal, the medieval troubadours’ tongue, which was revived by Frédéric Mistral in the 19th century, but lately has become mired in a contested civil debate about its spelling that just might sink it for good. Finally, Abley examines Yiddish as one language that has successfully transformed itself, thanks to vicissitudes of history, from a shameful, servile dialect to a modern holy tongue.

A humanistic approach to linguistics and a scintillating read. (source notes)

Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2003

ISBN: 0-618-23649-X

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
CAMP FOSSIL EYES
by Mark Abley and illustrated by Kathryn Adams

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.