About the Author

Mark Abley, a winner of Canada’s National Newspaper Award, writes for the Times Literary Supplement, the Montreal Gazette and other publications. He speaks English, French and a little Welsh.

Reviews

“Spoken Here is a splendid, original work, written with a combination of the scholarly and the personal, the anecdotal and the researched, in voices that celebrate words and create pictures.... Abley’s point, persuasively and vibrantly made, is that we are all weakened by threads dropped from the tapestry of international languages and cultures.”
—The Globe and Mail

“This generous, sorrow-tinged book is an informative and eloquent reminder of a richness that may not exist much longer.”
—Publishers Weekly

“In showing us the joys of linguistic diversity, Abley scatters irresistible diamonds.”
—Chicago Sun-Times

“Gracefully written, funny and frequently heartbreaking.”
—New York Times Book Review

"A fascinating and at times moving account of how languages die... [a] brilliantly illuminating and unique language-travel book."
—Observer

“A powerful and important book... His celebration of linguistic diversity is compelling, his diagnosis of its demise devastating.”
—Sunday Times

“A cri de coeur, passionately and convincingly argued... Vivid and often funny...well-written and lively. Spoken Here should help to extricate this subject from the academic circles to which it has mostly been confined, and get it out into the wider world.”
—New Statesman

“Timely... Spoken Here is a mix of travelogue, history, linguistics, journalism and finally agitprop on behalf of Babel... Books may be almost routinely described as ‘important’, but Mark Abley’s Spoken Here truly is.”
—Sunday Herald

“Abley does not put forward a formula for saving endangered languages. He does, however, present his case in dramatic fashion. He argues with passion that they are as deserving of preservation as are biological species.”
—Winnipeg Free Press

“The Montreal author’s new book, Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages...chronicles his journey to Australia and the Isle of Man, to France, Oklahoma and around our country, in rich, elegiac detail, asking all along: What do we lose when the world loses another language?”
—The National Post, Star Phoenix (Saskatoon)

"Abley’s enthusiasm is infectious; he is a passionate amateur, not a professional linguist, and his book may be the better for it."
—Sunday Times

"The resounding humanity and poignancy of his writing is deeply affecting and ensures that he has created something much more powerful than an exercise in semantic analysis."
—Observer

"Abley…makes us appreciate the richness that we’re all losing, and, even more keenly, the plight of the people who lose their cultural heritage, their independence, and in some cases their political rights, along with their language."
—Independent on Sunday

"Brilliant and enjoyable…a corrective to the arid tedium of most writing on linguistics"
—Independent

"A fine book about linguistic globalisation"
—Evening Standard

"Abley conducts his study of languages as disparate as Inuktitut and Manx with great sensitivity"
—Telegraph

In this lively travelog, journalist Abley, a winner of Canada's National Newspaper Award, travels around the world to capture cultures where languages are dying. With a journalist's sense for powerful quotes, he introduces readers to teachers in Wales and Australia, a novelist writing in Yiddish, the director of a choir that sings in Manx, and two DJs from a Mohawk-language radio program. Opportunities to promote language through mass media or music are contrasted with the hard choices individuals must make to use and pass on a language personally. The chapters on Yiddish and Hebrew offer perhaps the strongest views about the relationship between identity and language, since Jews have forged identities within many languages and cultures. These portraits of personal struggle distinguish Abley's work from similar publications, including Andrew Dalby's Language in Danger, which are more scholarly and examine larger linguistic trends. Unfortunately, the documentation is weak, with the "Sources" section marred by a failure to incorporate a conventional footnote or endnote scheme. But the strong storytelling makes this a solid purchase for public libraries.-Marianne Orme, Des Plaines P.L., IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

"Spoken Here is a splendid, original work, written with a combination of the scholarly and the personal, the anecdotal and the researched, in voices that celebrate words and create pictures.... Abley's point, persuasively and vibrantly made, is that we are all weakened by threads dropped from the tapestry of international languages and cultures."
-The Globe and Mail

"This generous, sorrow-tinged book is an informative and eloquent reminder of a richness that may not exist much longer."
-Publishers Weekly

"In showing us the joys of linguistic diversity, Abley scatters irresistible diamonds."
-Chicago Sun-Times

"Gracefully written, funny and frequently heartbreaking."
-New York Times Book Review

"A fascinating and at times moving account of how languages die... [a] brilliantly illuminating and unique language-travel book."
-Observer

"A powerful and important book... His celebration of linguistic diversity is compelling, his diagnosis of its demise devastating."
-Sunday Times

"A cri de coeur, passionately and convincingly argued... Vivid and often funny...well-written and lively. Spoken Here should help to extricate this subject from the academic circles to which it has mostly been confined, and get it out into the wider world."
-New Statesman

"Timely... Spoken Here is a mix of travelogue, history, linguistics, journalism and finally agitprop on behalf of Babel... Books may be almost routinely described as 'important', but Mark Abley's Spoken Here truly is."
-Sunday Herald

"Abley does not put forward a formula for saving endangered languages. He does, however, present his case in dramatic fashion. He argues with passion that they are as deserving of preservation as are biological species."
-Winnipeg Free Press

"The Montreal author's new book, Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages...chronicles his journey to Australia and the Isle of Man, to France, Oklahoma and around our country, in rich, elegiac detail, asking all along: What do we lose when the world loses another language?"
-The National Post, Star Phoenix (Saskatoon)

"Abley's enthusiasm is infectious; he is a passionate amateur, not a professional linguist, and his book may be the better for it."
-Sunday Times

"The resounding humanity and poignancy of his writing is deeply affecting and ensures that he has created something much more powerful than an exercise in semantic analysis."
-Observer

"Abley...makes us appreciate the richness that we're all losing, and, even more keenly, the plight of the people who lose their cultural heritage, their independence, and in some cases their political rights, along with their language."
-Independent on Sunday

"Brilliant and enjoyable...a corrective to the arid tedium of most writing on linguistics"
-Independent

"A fine book about linguistic globalisation"
-Evening Standard

"Abley conducts his study of languages as disparate as Inuktitut and Manx with great sensitivity"
-Telegraph