- Hardcover: 401 pages
- Publisher: Picador (26 Oct 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330372807
- ISBN-13: 978-0330372800
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 13.8 x 4.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,666,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
In 1996, Helena Drysdale, her husband and their two small children, Tallulah and Xanthe, got into their mobile home (a converted van) and began a journey around Europe that lasted nearly 18 months. In that time they visited most of the areas of western Europe where minority languages are still spoken, such as Brittany, Catalonia and Sardinia. Drysdale was interested in examining the cultures in which the languages were rooted and exploring the histories behind the rise and decline of the languages. It's a rich subject. Drysdale doesn't just rely on the information she picks up in each place: she has done plenty of book-based research and is extremely well-versed on the geography, history, culture and politics of many parts of Europe that are usually neglected. The book covers the more obscure minority languages such as Proven?al and Sami as well as the better-known ones like Basque and Breton. Drysdale talks to both native speakers and local experts about the state of the languages, and a familiar pattern emerges: a history of conquest and repression, in which the minority language is forbidden in schools; a nineteenth century revival led by the middle classes; and a 20th-century decline, precipitated in part by the First World War. Sometimes, as in the Basque country, the language becomes the focus of a liberation struggle. The book's impressive scholarship sits uneasily, however, beside the accounts of family life, and some readers may feel irritated at Drysdale's insistence on taking her precocious four-year-old and noisy one-year-old along to her interviews. Many of her interviewees clearly to Drysdale's surprise are understandably annoyed by the intrusion. The story of the delights and miseries of travelling around Europe in a van with one's family may have its audience, but it belongs in a different book. (Kirkus UK)
Literary Review
It is a great subject, and she does it more than justice in this unpretentious, well-written, sad and funny book.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An intruiging and illuminating travel book,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mother Tongues: Travels Through Tribal Europe (Paperback)
The author travels with her husband and 2 young children through Europe in search of "tribal Europe" - Europe's (mostly)stateless "tribes" such as the Catalans, Bretons, Macedonians & others, including some you probably haven't heard of. She investigates their history , politics, language and lifestyles and paints a lively picture of Europe's nooks & crannies. Though rather low on humour, and containing rather more trivia about her children than I wanted to know, it's a compelling and illuminating read.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The trials of Tallulah and Xanthe,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mother Tongues: Travels Through Tribal Europe (Paperback)
The idea of the book tempted me to buy it, though I wish I'd been warned off by the reviewer who commented that it would have been improved by less information about the author's kids. It is less a book about the minority languages of Europe and more a family diary of an overlong holiday. I was torn between feeling sorry for Tallulah (being dragged away from her friends to live in a converted lorry) and wishing the child would behave well enough so that there could be more information on the topic the book is supposed to be about.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
read this great book,
By Natalie Smith (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mother Tongues: Travels Through Tribal Europe (Paperback)
I love this book. It weaves together two strands, about the endangered minorities of Europe, and about travelling quite rough with a young family over a period of 18 months. Each really enhances the other. The story is about Helena Drysdale and her husband and two daughters (one still a baby) who set off in a camper van to discover more about the little-known peoples of Europe - the Sami, Basques, Corsicans and so on. She immersed herself in these peoples' culture, discovering all she could about what makes them tick: their languages, history, literature, music. But when the story threatens to get bogged down in esoteric details of linguistics, you cut back to daily family life. This acts as a sort of leavening - it lightens the tone, and is often very funny.I have never raad a book like this before, which is so ambitious in its scope - covering most of western Europe. Each chapter is almost like a book in its own right, and has been thoroughly researched, while never being too heavy. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the endangered peoples of Europe, whose lives are at risk almsot as much as the endangered plants and animals we hear so much more about.
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