Rare Tongues

The Secret Stories of Hidden Languages

Lorna Gibb

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9780691276250
  9780691274171
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691275703
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Historical & Comparative Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

An enthralling tour of the world’s rarest and most endangered languages

Languages and cultures are becoming increasingly homogenous, with the resulting loss of a rich linguistic tapestry reflecting unique perspectives and ways of life. Rare Tongues tells the stories of the world’s rare and vanishing languages, revealing how each is a living testament to human resilience, adaptability, and the perennial quest for identity.

Taking readers on a captivating journey of discovery, Lorna Gibb explores the histories of languages under threat or already extinct as well as those in resurgence, shedding light on their origins, development, and distinctive voices. She travels the globe—from Australia and Finland to India, the Canary Islands, Namibia, Scotland, and Paraguay—showing how these languages are not mere words and syntax but keepers of diverse worldviews, sites of ethnic conflict, and a means for finding surprising commonalities. Readers learn the basics of how various language systems work—with vowels and consonants, whistles and clicks, tonal inflections, or hand signs—and how this kaleidoscope of self-expression carries vital information about our planet, indigenous cultures and tradition, and the history and evolution of humankind.

Rare Tongues is essential reading for anyone concerned about the preservation of endangered languages and an eloquent and disarmingly personal meditation on why the world’s linguistic heritage is so fundamental to our shared experience—and why its loss should worry us all.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• About the Author
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Latin and How Languages Develop
• 2. Khoisan – The Languages with Many Sounds
• 3. Lost and Reclaimed
• 4. Languages and Ecosystems: An Environmentalist Vocabulary
• 5. Plains Sign Talk – The Sound of Silence
• 6. Whistled Languages
• 7. Rare Tongues in Europe: Sicilian, Corsican, Catalan, and Monégasque
• 8. Language in Conflict
• 9. Language Revival
• 10. Dare to Speak Your Language: Guarani and Gaelic
• Conclusion
• Appendix: A Note on Some Linguistic Terms and the Idea of Linguistic Universality
• Select Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• Notes
• Index