Book about preserving endangered languages wins British Academy Book Prize 2024

A book about preserving languages which are going extinct has won the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding 2024.

The prize, which is given to the best work of non-fiction that contributes to global understanding of world culture, was awarded to Ross Perlin’s Language City: The Fight To Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues, with its author taking home a £25,000 prize.

Perlin’s book beat the rest of the six-book shortlist, which included Material World: A Substantial Story Of Our Past And Future by Ed Conway and Smoke And Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories by Amitav Ghosh.

History of migration

The rest of the shortlist was made up by Tame And The Wild: People And Animals After 1492 by Marcy Norton, Divided: Racism, Medicine And Why We Need To Decolonise Healthcare by Annabel Sowemimo, and The Secret Lives Of Numbers: A Global History Of Mathematics And Its Unsung Trailblazers by Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell.

Each shortlisted author will also take home a £1,000 prize.

The winning book sees Perlin write about the history of migration in New York, the world’s most linguistically diverse city with more than 700 languages being spoken, and profile six speakers of endangered languages.

Speaking on behalf of the judges, Professor Charles Tripp said: “Language City is a fascinating, captivating social history and contemporary linguistic account of New York City.

“It offers readers a unique perspective of the city that brings out both the precarity but also the resilience of migrants and their rich and varied languages as they seek to adapt their native tongues to 21st century urban life.

“At a time when many languages worldwide are disappearing, Ross Perlin celebrates the subtleties of linguistic diversity, treating each with sensitivity and humanity.”

Esteemed author

Perlin, who is from New York City, is also the author of Intern Nation: How To Earn Nothing And Learn Little In The Brave New Economy about unpaid work and youth economics.

He has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, Harper’s and the literary magazine n+1, and was a New Arizona Fellow at New America.

Nandini Das won the 2023 prize for Courting India: England, Mughal India And The Origins Of Empire.

The British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding has been running since 2013.

Ross Perlin’s Language City: The Fight To Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues is available from all good book shops.