A book that charts how endangered languages are preserved in the modern world has won this year’s British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding.
The annual Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, created by the British Academy in 2013, has awarded American writer Ross Perlin the £25,000 (€30,100) prize for his non-fiction work ‘Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues’.
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‘Language City’ charts the history of migration into New York via the languages of different cultures entering the area, overwhelming the indigenous Lenape speakers. He then traces that history through to the present with six case studies of endangered language speakers in New York.
Throughout the book, Perlin examines how endangered languages survive through the resilience of their cultural communities, how their unique grammar and syntaxes work, and what we can learn about diverse cultures through studying these languages.
“New York City is home to more than 700 languages – ‘the most linguistically diverse city in the history of the world’ – and by examining them Perlin opens out new ways of thinking about the exuberant variety of these aspects of the urban soundscape, which we might otherwise take for granted or ignore,” Professor Charles Tripp FBA, one of the judges commented.
Language City – Grove Press UK
“Perlin’s research is dynamic and immediate; it is about what is happening now, right in front of us, as we witness the flux of everyday life. It was a real pleasure for the judges to read, even if our reading was tinged with concern for the subjects of these entrancing narratives,” Tripp added.
Professor Julia Black, President of the British Academy commented on the status of the academy’s book prize in celebrating “exceptional research” and non-fiction works that highlight…
(L-R): Ty “Dancing Wolf” Ellis of the Lenapehopking Reestablishment Project; Ian Marshall, dean of the School of Arts & Humanities; Ryann Casey, exhibition coordinator for the Stockton Art Gallery; Tyrese “Bright Flower” Gould Jacinto of the Nanticoke/Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation; Mariana Smith, associate professor of Art; Terricita Sass, executive vice president and chief of staff for the Office of the President; and Joe Bertolino, president of Stockton University. 
