The book How to Kill a Language by British journalist and blogger Sofia Smith-Galer is divided into ten chapters, each dedicated to a specific language, Divoche media reports.
Among the languages featured in the book are Italian and Ukrainian, as well as lesser-known languages such as Ladino (the language of the Sephardic Jews) and Dagbani (spoken by the Gur people in Ghana and northern Togo).
The journalist also posted a video on her Instagram page discussing the linguistic genocide of the Ukrainian language. Smith-Galer recalled the KyivNotKiev language campaign, which “was always more than just a slogan, as its aim was to show the West that much of what had been heard about Ukraine in the past was, in fact, viewed through the prism of Russia”.
“For centuries, various Russian states — the Russian Empire and the USSR — pursued policies aimed at diminishing the Ukrainian language and elevating Russian. The result of such policies and decrees was that the Ukrainian language was often devalued in public life, politics and universities,” the blogger says.
“Ukraine gained independence in 1991, so the country had just over 30 years to revive its language. And now — war. A war in which Russia has tried to drive the Ukrainian language out of everywhere, from the territories it has occupied, in order to impose the Russian language once again,” Smith-Galer emphasises.
She noted that the book will soon be translated into Ukrainian, although she has not yet revealed the name of the publisher.