The Atlas of Unusual Languages: An exploration of language, people and geography

by Zoran Nikolić

We communicate through the spoken and written word and language has evolved over the centuries. Many languages have survived although only in small pockets throughout the world. This book explores a selection of those languages and some that have now been lost forever.


Selection of languages included;


ISLANDS OF LANGUAGE ISOLATES
- Basque language, Spain/France
- Ainu, Japan/Russia
- Burushaski, Pakistan
- Huave language, Mexico
INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE ISLANDS
- Čučer-Sandevo; Selemlija, N. Macedoniae
- Trinidadian French Creole, Trinidad Tobago
- Y Wladfa, a Welsh colony in Argentina
- Cornish language
- Vakifli, Turkey
- Bolze language of Switzerland
NON-IE LANGUAGE ISLANDS IN EUROPE
- Ugric languages
- Gagauz language
- Kalmyk Oirat language
LANGUAGE ISLANDS AROUND THE WORLD
- Yele language, Rossel Island, Papua New Guinea
- Formosan languages
- Kumzari language, Oman
“WEIRD” LANGUAGES
- Polari language, UK
- Shelta traveller language of Ireland
EXTINCT LANGUAGE ISLANDS
- Sumerian language
- Potato Germans in Denmark
- Crimean Gothic


These and many more instances are captured in this fascinating book full of strange language intrigue.

Genres: Nonfiction, Language, Linguistics, History

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2021

Reviews

[em · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.
Let me preface my review by making it clear, I have a degree in Linguistics. I have spent the last three years studying languages, dialects, accents and everything in between. I find great joy and entertainment from reading about said 'unusual languages'. This book was entertaining and well explained. I can see how it would make for a good gift for any language lover, the images and maps added to the overall reading experience. There was clearly a lot of research put into this. However, the linguist in me wanted more information. I wanted more detail, more empirical evidence and more explanation behind these oddities. The author addresses this and clarifies that this is not a scientific book, so I understand the lack of depth in some of the chapters. Nonetheless, it was a good read and I came away knowing more than I did before.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for kindly providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. #TheAtlasOfUnusualLanguages #NetGalley. All opinions are my own

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason why I deducted a star was because I wanted more! To be fair, the author makes clear that this is not a linguistics book and, instead, is a layperson's take on unusual languages. (Granted, the author is more interested than the average layperson, and the amount of research that went into this is impressive.) The book does exactly what it claims: provides a grand scope/breadth, not depth. Also, the author's voice is a pleasant one, dipping occasionally into a conversational style that makes me wish my husband (a linguist) and I could share a table on a train with him. 😊

I would love to see a series of follow-ups by this author, in which he could go into greater detail. The resulting volumes could be organized either geographically or thematically (like, languages that rely heavily on cases vs. prepositions, or agglutinative languages, or phonetic trends, etc.).

If a new edition comes out of this book, I would love to see even more maps, ones with greater detail, accompanying the text.

In summary, I really enjoyed this Atlas of Unusual Languages.

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm... I saw this book falling down a hole between two markets. For language specialists I felt it would become something for flicking through in the smallest room, as it was never comprehensive or scholarly enough, yet for the average curious browser (which was how I approached it) it became a little too dry, and not quite what I expected. It introduces us, in very friendly manner, to language isolates, and language islands, the first an endemic one-off, linguistically, the second a chunk of people speaking a known language we find elsewhere, but in an unexpected place when compared to what their neighbours are speaking.

We easily skim through a few isolates, even if the author takes almost every opportunity to tell us what one is, which we understood the first time, thanks. More convoluted are the language islands, such as the one formed of a couple hundred thousand who fled eastern Bulgaria and are now in the extreme SW of Ukraine and a smidge of Moldova. Pre-technology days, if they wanted to speak to anyone in their own tongue who was not a neighbour, they would have had to take a cart right across Romania's coastal area. With Serbians in the 'wrong' places, and Croat heard today in three villages somewhat near Bari, Italy, we learn there is a lot to blame the Ottomans for.

To respond in the base way, to the book's very title, well the 'atlas' part is definitely correct, for this conveys the geography of the languages very well, and of course their history, in showing in text and image what cultural grounding these isolated communities live with today – whether they have their own schools, churches, festivals, newspapers, traffic signs etc. Some of this I still found absolutely fascinating – how there is a diaspora of Sorbs ("who?", I hear you say) that went SE to the Barossa Valley of Australia, and W to Texas – but a lot that was a little too dry. But while I never expected to learn any lingo, I did think, as a word fan, that I might gain a bit of what makes each language an 'unusual' one – extended, unpronouncable quotes from "The Little Prince" didn't get me to where I thought I'd be.

Still, this did at times manage to inform in a quite entertaining way; the book being more pleasurable to the random browser like me when it's dealing with places and peoples with whom you have affinity. Even hearing about tongues such as Tischlbongarisch brings a novelty to the day, although of course it's a lot more than trivial to the people who speak it. It's ironic for me to say I didn't know quite what to expect from these pages, yet it wasn't exactly what I thought I was letting myself in for, but that doesn't mean I don't wish this success. Three and a half stars.

[Terence Eden · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this book. It starts with a hefty disclaimer:

"Please note that the author of this book is not a linguist and the book is not intended to be read as a scientific work. Instead, it’s simply a collection of some interesting linguistic curiosities and should be viewed as such."

It's hard to call this a book. It really is a collection of snippets from Wikipedia. There's no real description of what makes a language, nor how they evolve. In fact, the book rarely tells us anything about a language other than it exists.
Once in a while, it mentions how a counting system works ("one, two, many") but it never attempts to tell us any of the language features. Is this language peculiar in not having a past tense? Does that language have different prefixes for male and female nouns? Do these people not have words for left and right - instead referring to East and West? No idea. If it isn't in the first paragraph of the encyclopedia entry, it doesn't get a mention.

Instead of an actual investigation into these languages, everything is written with hedging statements. "It is believed...", and "According to legend (and claims on social media)...", and "It is assumed..."

The book contains translated passages of "The Little Prince" to compare languages. Again, these have been lifted wholesale from another book. And, again, they don't tell us anything interesting about the languages. What is the etymology of "Dywysog"? What does that tell us about how the language evolved?

There are a few photos of some of the more unusual written languages - but they're nothing more than a passing mention.

Similarly, there's a single paragraph devoted to whistling languages! And it's little more than a list. How do whistling languages work? Are there any similarities between them? The book is silent.

As a coffee-table book, it's fine. Nice large photos (again, taken from Wikipedia) and some light text to skim. But if you want any information about languages and what makes them unusual, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.

[Fern A · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up. This is an interesting book that provides a trip round the world via the languages spoken. Written in conversational tones this is not a challenging book but rather an introduction, acting as an encyclopaedia, to lesser spoken and more unusual languages. A vast variety of languages are written about with a few paragraphs each also containing information about the associated people, culture and history.

This is very much a book for dipping in and out of and for providing a first step into personal further research into specific languages. Reading through it I made note of a few languages and regions I would like to do some more research about. A great book for those looking to expand their knowledge on geography and culture.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot and I found this book informative and well researched.
I don't think it's a book for linguists or anyone who's working on this field but it's an excellent way to discover facts about less know or nearly forgotten languages.
I enjoyed it and learned something new.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[Kid Ferrous · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully produced collection of “interesting linguistic curiosities”, namely the obscure tongues still spoken. It is a colourful atlas of over 200 languages, and the indigenous people who speak them, pinpointed on a world map and described in short, easily digestible sections. Richly illustrated with maps and photographs of the regions, it is clearly written and easy to follow and suitable for a broad age range.

[Céline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoy reading about linguistics and languages and was really happy to receive an ARC of this book :)
Overall, I have to say I was a bit disappointed that the linguistics content was scarce. There weren't many facts about the languages. I was glad when there were some, and translations of the Little Prince were used to compare languages, but only in the Latin script even for languages with other scripts and without guidance on pronunciation or many interesting insights.
The focus is also quite heavily on Indo-European languages, but the list of languages and language islands is still quite extensive. What was interesting was the focus on geographical and historical data to explain how language islands appeared. For example, I learnt quite a few facts about Armenian rose jam in Venice or Brazil areas having Venetian as a co-official language. But not that much about the languages themselves, which is why my rating isn't higher. I could still feel that the author is passionate about the topic and wanted to transmit this.
I want to thank Collins Reference and NetGalley for gifting me a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Marta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an interesting read that allowed me to discover new languages and also unexpected places where languages are spoken. It combines some of my favorite things: languages and linguistics, culture, and geography.

[Rory Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comprehensive “geographical” survey of languages. However its coverage was a little uneven in places.

The book sets out to “illustrate the relationship between people, language and geography” (Kindle 3%) and it does that well, providing lots of information about languages and their current distribution in the world. It covers all the continents, and it also provides information about unexpected enclaves, such as the South American Welsh speakers.

At times the information was a bit ‘uneven.’ We hear, for example, that the Basque language stands out as being an isolate with no similarities to other languages (5%). But what makes the Basque language so unique? Is it its grammar, its vocabulary… or what? Sadly we get no information to explain.

This is disappointing as other languages are introduced with more explanatory description. For example,e we hear that a Seri language used on Tiburon Island in the Gulf of California has an unusually large number of words to denote relationships within a family. It even has a word for newspapers, “hapaspoi” which means “paper that tells lies” (15%).

At times sociological detail comes to the fore. We hear that the village of Gapun in Papua New Guinea speak Tayap and have a custom so that a new mother gets to live on her own in a hut until the baby first smiles (12%). We also hear about Armenian monks making jam (67%). These are interesting sociological details, but if space in the book was tight, I would have preferred if the book had edited out the sociology in order to provide more information about the languages.

Sometimes the descriptions of the languages seemed a little incomplete, and even misleading. For example we are told that the Hadza language only includes two numerals, the numbers one and two. After that the word “lots” is used (7%). The impression is given that this is a uniquely distinguishing feature of the language. But then, later in the book, we hear essentially the same description about Piraha (94%).

When the book discussed Tasmanian languages it noted that Palawa Kani is a reconstructed “artificial” language which combines words from differing Tasmanian languages (77%). The mention of an “artificial” language made me wonder about other artificial languages like Klingon and Esperanto, but they do not get a mention in the book. Perhaps they weren’t deemed to have a geographical presence?

I also wondered why “working languages” were not included. For example Latin was used as a working language for the 2000 bishops who met for the Second Vatican Council in 1965. It is still, often, a language option for meetings at the Vatican, although its usage is in marked decline. So it does have a degree of geographical presence which might have made it worth mentioning ?

Overall, this is an informative book which is written in a way which makes it accessible to readers of any background. Readers can quibble with some of the editorial decisions, but given the limited scope of the book, it can also be enjoyed as doing, broadly, what it said it would do.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-atlas-of-unusual-languages-by-zoran-nikolic/

Along similar lines to the same author’s Atlas of Unusual Borders, this brings together trivia about language isolates from all over the globe. It’s much the same story over and over again, for 230 pages, but the message is clear: language diversity is part of human experience, and that can include ancient languages which are just about hanging on in their native places, but also new-ish creoles which have been created to help communication.

There were a lot more cases that I had not heard of here than in the same author’s Unusual Borders book. Most of these would be well enough known in their own countries (most Poles know about Kashubian, for instance). But almost every country seems to have some linguistic quirk hidden in a corner. (For instance, the Germanic section ends with French Flemish.)

I did wish Nikolić had gone a little more into unusual grammar or phonology. The front cover of my copy of the book references the ǃXóõ language of Namibia, which has the most phonemes of any known tongue – 87 consonants, half of which are clicks, 20 vowels, and two tones by one count. There must be a few more like that. Information is of course difficult to come by.

Some of the languages are illustrated with a paragraph from The Little Prince, which does help a little with getting a sense of the structure. Again, I’d have liked to see a bit more here, for instance emphasising the words for “sunrise” would give you a better feeling for how the language works.

However, I don’t know of any other book quite like this and I’m glad to have it.

[Ivana Krekáňová · Rating 4 out of 5]

Je to presne také, ako sa to tvári, teda atlas zaujímavých jazykových kuriozít, pekne s fotkami a mapami ako sa na správny atlas patrí, ale teda narobila som sa na preklad ako blázon. Autor sa narodil v bývalej Juhoslávii uprostred dnešného Srbska, a množstvo jazykov, ktorými sa v Juhoslávii hovorilo (srbochorvátčina, slovinčina, albánčina, macedónčina... a áno, aj slovenčina a čeština) v ňom už od detstva vzbudzovala záujem. A ten pretavil do knihy o rôznych izolovaných jazykoch a jazykových ostrovoch od baltskej latgalčiny cez formosanské jazyky a židovskú tatčinu až po brazílske fulniô.

Ako nie je to nič lingvisticky odborné, ale ako úvod do toho, čím všetkým a kde všade sa hovorí – a do toho množstvo geografických a historických vsuviek – je to skvelé. Osobne vyberám napríklad pitkairnčinu: keď na palube Bounty vypukla vzbura, loď sa musela vrátiť na Tahiti, kde ju niekoľko námorníkov opustilo, ale ďalší (vzbúrenci plus zopár Tahiťaniek a Tahiťanov) pokračovali na ostrov Pitcairn a jeho izolácia spôsobila vznik nového jazyka, zmesi angličtiny a tahitčiny; alebo veľkoizvorčinu: tou sa hovorí v troch obciach v balkánskom regióne, ktorých obyvateľov spája dlhá história, v ktorej sa mieša Kyjevská Rus, mongolská invázia, aj pravoslávne kláštory. A samozrejme, nechýba ani obec Kovačica, celosvetovo známe centrum slovenského insitného umenia.

[Martin Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was fine. There's very little in this book about the linguistics of the languages included. The languages are considered 'unusual' due to their socio-geographic distribution. In this sense the book is great: there's some interesting context for cases like Polish speakers in Türkiye, the multilingual Vojvodina (Serbia), and minority European languages in the Americas. But I wanted more. There's little in this book you can't learn on Wikipedia - in fact, some of the pictures inside I've literally seen on Wikipedia pages about these languages

[Grace -thewritebooks]

I would agree with other reviews and say that while it contains some interesting facts and explanations, the information provided is either too brief or too dense to be accessible. Large sections and photos gave the sense of a Wikipedia article.
Has provided me with some notes for further reading though!

[R-mig · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, bad title. Why would you call a language unusual? Second, the writing is a little too uninteresting. But there's some good stuff in there... about languages and countries you wouldn't expect to be related to one another actually having a connection.
I just have a question. What's the author's deal with 'The Little Prince'? Is it his favorite book or something?

[Aida Saldana Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, this book made me travel!

[DeltaXIII · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's okay. Nothing to write home about.

[Brightonfucc · Rating 2 out of 5]

go girl give us nothing

[Will Haslam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn’t have known about many of these languages without the book, so I thank it for that. But it was so cursory. And the author was not a linguist by training.