What is lost when a language dies? It’s a grim question confronting the speakers of 3,400 languages around the world–more than half the total–that linguists warn could become extinct this century. Dying languages are nothing new. But the trend has exploded due to the spread of American pop culture and globalization. In his book Spoken Here, award-winning former Montreal Gazette feature writer Mark Abley travels the world to survey some of the most threatened languages and tell their stories. Abley’s journey takes him to Oklahoma’s Ozark Hills, where he meets the Yuchi, a tiny Native American nation written off years ago as extinct. Abley discovers that some Yuchi are still doggedly trying to pass on their language, even though only about a dozen people speak it. One Yuchi woman proudly tells Abley: “It is the most beautiful language in the world.” The book also takes us to Australia, home to some of the world’s greatest linguistic diversity but also many of the worst examples of language erosion. Abley shows the struggles for Gaelic, Yiddish, and Mohawk, whose speakers are stubbornly keeping their languages alive through literature, radio shows, traffic signs, and linguistic pride campaigns. The struggles are not easy, with indigenous languages facing the worst pressures. Of 154 still in use in the U.S., Abley reports that 77 percent are spoken by less than 1,000 people. In Canada, 10 of 50 Aboriginal languages have already disappeared, and another dozen are on the brink of extinction. Only three–Cree, Ojibway, and Inuktitut–are considered as healthy. So what do we lose when a language vanishes? Gone forever, Abley writes, is “an irreplaceable worldview and a wealth of practical knowledge.” As one Mohawk band councilor puts it: “I envision language as a 1-800 number to my ancestors.” –Alex Roslin