How to Kill a Language

Name: How to Kill a Language
Price: 34.99 AUD
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ISBN: 9780008723736

Power, Resistance and the Race to Save Our Words

Sophia Smith Galer

$34.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

William Collins
12 May 2026

Language: history & general works; linguistics; Language acquisition; Bilingualism & multilingualism; Globalization; Geopolitics

‘Beautiful, thought-provoking, and compelling' SUSIE DENT

'An extremely moving, passionate plea' CAL FLYN

As Sophia Smith Galer’s Nonna lay dying, she realised it wasn’t just a beloved grandmother she was losing – it was the language she spoke, too. From Northern Italy, she spoke a dialët that Sophia, like so many children and grandchildren of migrants, can understand but can’t speak. With the death of the language, Sophia would lose a culture, a history, an inheritance – a whole world.

This tragedy reaches far beyond her family. Globally we are witnessing an unprecedented mass extinction event. By the end of this century half of the world’s 7000 languages will be gone, killed by war, climate breakdown, migration, nationalism or neglect, along with the vital knowledge that they have sustained for centuries.

Award-winning journalist Smith Galer has journeyed across continents and generations to report from this disappearing world. From Ghana to Greece, Ecuador to Oman, California to the UK, she meets people experiencing this loss at first hand – but also campaigners and linguists who prove that a multilingual future is still possible. Her travels ultimately lead her back to where she began: to Italy, and the tiny mountainside village where the church bells still ring out for her Nonna.

How to Kill a Language is an impassioned investigation into a hidden global crisis, and a call to speak, read and write the languages of our world, before it’s too late.

By: Sophia Smith Galer
Imprint: William Collins
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 21mm
Weight: 270g
ISBN: 9780008723736
ISBN 10: 0008723737
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 12 May 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Sophia is a reporter, writer and documentary maker with the BBC World Service, specialising in religion and digital culture. She is the first BBC journalist to be on TikTok and has accrued over 200,000 followers across social media. She was named as a 'Voice of Change' in the TikTok 100 best of 2020 and sits as an inaugural member of the TikTok Creator Council. She was also selected as a One to Watch by the Edinburgh Television Festival in 2020 and has a Webby in Social Media for Arts and Culture. This will be her first book.

Reviews for How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance and the Race to Save Our Words

‘Utterly fascinating, very topical and wide-ranging’ BIDISHA 'Sophia Smith Galer is one of the UK's most impressive young journalists' GREG JENNER ‘This is the best book on language endangerment I have ever read. A love letter to languages … Its ten stories locate their languages in a context of personal heritage, identity, and culture in a way that is both intellectually rigorous and yet profoundly moving’ DAVID CRYSTAL, author of Language Death