New Language Books: Dalby's "Dictionary of Languages" and Crystal's "Language Death"

[Jeffrey Kopp]

From "Book Currents," The New Yorker, 7/15/02:

  "The reasons a language gets written down in the first place seem to vary. In the Mediterranean, says Andrew Dalby in his DICTIONARY OF LANGUAGES (Columbia), the impetus was a need for reliable accounting. Bookkeeping, in other words, preceded books. However, David Crystal warns in LANGUAGE DEATH (Cambridge) that 'when a language dies which has never been recorded in some way, it is as if it has never been.' Many scholars believe that the coming century will see the death of half of the six thousand or so languages currently spoken--about one language every two weeks. Crystal’s most piquant insight into the problem comes in a South African taxi whose driver speaks all eleven of his country’s official languages but whose chief ambition is 'to earn enough to enable all his children to learn English.' --Leo Carey"