Elizabeth Little (1)

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 show more 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. show less

*happily received this as an ARC*
This book had such potential -- a great premise, a snarky, unlovable narrator, and an out-of-the-way South Dakota setting (and an alliterative Gone Girl-ish title). Sadly, the one-dimensional characters and their unending cluelessness that served to move the plot forward made it only a so-so read. The mystery part of it kept me reading, but the resolution left me cold.

Elizabeth Little is deeply, delightfully in love with languages, and her infectious enthusiasm shines out from every page of this fun little book as she takes us on a whirlwind tour of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and all the other components of human speech. Along the way, she introduces us to some of the weirdest and most wonderful examples of how different languages work, from Arabic's pattern of creating new words by swapping out an existing word's vowels, to the staggeringly complicated show more things Navajo does with verbs, to the way Thai uses a different word for "three" depending on whether you're talking about three books, three boys, or three cigarettes. Personally, I find all this fascinating but there's no doubt that any discussion of grammar can get pretty dry if it's not written properly, so Little's breezy style, entertaining pop culture references, and amusingly self-deprecating anecdotes about her own experiences with language-learning are extremely welcome and keep things moving along at a fast, entertaining clip.

Definitely recommended for anybody with a streak of linguistic nerdiness in their soul. show less

Elizabeth Little's Trip of the Tongue is an often-amusing travelogue through the languages of the continental U.S., as well as an important argument in favor of linguistic diversity and all that it brings to the nation's culture.

At first I was somewhat frustrated by this book, thinking that Little focused a bit too much on her travels and her desire to go out drinking and not enough on the languages she was profiling. But as the book continued, I got more comfortable with her style, and I show more ended up quite enjoying the ride.

From Basque in Nevada to Norwegian in North Dakota to Navajo in Arizona and Creole in New Orleans, Little profiles languages from all regions of America, meeting speakers and linguists, experiencing the culture around the language, and delving into the mechanics of the languges themselves.

Finally, though, Little examines the history of American languages through the lens of prejudice and privilege which has led to the loss of many languages already, and likely the extinction of many more before many more decades have passed. The delightful romp turns into something of a paean to linguistic diversity, and this is a much more interesting book for it. show less