I'm nearly halfway through the book, but I'm struggling. So far the research seems like it was taken mostly from historical texts and little from actually visiting the different locations...which could be ok, but that's not why I picked up the book. I was so disappointed with the research on Crow and Navajo that I skipped the chapter on Washington state-area languages altogether. She barely referenced any real interaction she made with people of the different nations, gave mostly history, and only a couple examples of the language structure and a basic outline of current usage. I found her "confession" about glossing over the linguistic heritage of Louisiana rather smug and still the chapter focused more on history than the present and potential future. Even if I don't always understand it, I'm not afraid of a more in depth discussion of linguistics, but it's not happening here. In addition, though I have a casual interest in linguistics, I am continually surprised by her relative lack of awareness of many idiosyncrasies and the self-satisfied attitude in which she acknowledges this for someone with formal training and a self-proclaimed worldliness (once she started to "discover" the diversity of Queens, NY, of course).

I'm hanging on primarily because I want to read a discussion of Gullah (currently reading) and Haitian Creole--both of which I possibly won't mind as much since I've read less about those than the languages presented in earlier chapters--but I may have to put it down after that.

I wanted to like this more. I enjoyed Little's book, Biting the Wax Tadpole--I feel it did a better job combining pop culture references and more specific aspects of language structure. The title led me to believe Trip of the Tongue would be more of a travelogue and current assessment of languages in the U.S., and certainly more approachable, but Little seems rather uninterested in getting into the nitty gritty of really knowing the areas she visited. I think I wanted more of an Anthony Bourdain-style treatment of linguistic discovery, but Little seems reluctant to get out of her hotel room.

*****

I did learn a bit from it, but, like I mentioned, it wasn't quite what I was looking for. ( )

A sort of travelogue mixed with amateur linguistic investigations. As someone who has way too many bits and pieces of French, Hebrew, etc. floating about in my head, I understand the fascination with languages, and I really appreciated learning more about the various communities in the U.S., particularly how assimilation, prejudice and educational policies have made it harder for various languages to survive. I must admit to having trouble deciphering the paragraphs of linguistic jargon, and her reviews of various cities seem gratuitous and even snarky to the point of being rude. Though her comments about Twilight *are* pretty funny. ( )

A really fun book about speech patterns and the ways local folks talk in the US. If you are interested in language, give this a try.

I love travel narratives. I’m not happy if I haven’t read a good travel narrative at least once a month.

I am also fascinated with languages. I’ve been trying to learn Spanish for fifteen years now, I spent six months learning French before a trip to Paris, and I plan to learn Italian next summer.

This book, then, is a perfect book for me, a travel narrative of a woman who seeks out languages spoken around the United States. Author Elizabeth Little heads off to the American West to seek out Native American languages, goes to Louisiana to look for French and Creole, goes to North Dakota to experience the language spoken by her family - Norwegian, and ventures into the American Southwest to see how Spanish is spoken.

Very good travel narrative. I must admit that Little lost me every time she started speaking linguistics (the etymology of words was especially mind-boggling), but the truth is that the book is more travel narrative than a linguistics narrative. Thank goodness! ( )

This fascinating book is a philologically inspired virtual road trip. Author and linguaphile Elizabeth Little traveled 25,000 miles through 46 states in a quest to investigate the history, resiliency and syntactic quirks of languages still spoken in the US. She’s out to have fun, whenever possible timing her visits to take advantage of opportunities to celebrate with the locals, but there’s also a serious side to language politics and the book ended up having more substance than she originally expected.

Among Little’s interests is discovering what it takes for a non-dominant language to survive, and the book begins, naturally enough, with chapters on the states of Montana, Arizona and Washington where Native American languages are still being spoken with varying degrees of fluency. Later chapters cover some of the languages brought over by immigrants and the communities that may or may not care about keeping those languages alive, leading Little to encounter and describe a Basque festival in Nevada, a Norwegian fair in North Dakota, a smelly plague of some grasshopper-like insect in Idaho, zealous fans of Twilight in Oregon, and a Haitian vodou botanica in Miami.

With a more sociological slant than in books written by language professionals Little explores how language choices relate to status, economic privilege, literacy and cultural identity. Her descriptions and the many tangents she goes off on are as witty and irresistible as Bill Bryson’s and, while not a linguist, her insights on language and creoles are just about as intriguing and paradigm-rearranging as John McWhorter’s. ( )