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Spoken Here
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 340

Spoken Here

In Spoken Here, journalist Mark Abley takes us on a world tour -- from the Arctic Circle to the outback of Australia -- to track obscure languages and reveal their beauty and the devotion of those who work to save them. --from publisher description.

The Prodigal Tongue
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 284

The Prodigal Tongue

The wild, wacky, and sometimes baffling road of the English language and its astonishing evolution is the subject of this evocative and thoughtful, yet always lively, book for anyone who cherishes the words they use.

Conversations with a Dead Man
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 257

Conversations with a Dead Man

As a poet and citizen deeply concerned by the Oka Crisis, the Idle No More protests, and Canada’s ongoing failure to resolve First Nations issues, Montreal author Mark Abley has long been haunted by the figure of Duncan Campbell Scott, known both as the architect of Canada’s most destructive Aboriginal policies and as one of the nation’s major poets. Who was this enigmatic figure who could compose a sonnet to an “Onondaga Madonna” one moment and promote a “final solution” to the “Indian problem” the next? In this passionate, intelligent and highly readable inquiry into the state of Canada’s troubled Aboriginal relations, Abley alternates between analysis of current events and an imagined debate with the spirit of Duncan Campbell Scott, whose defense of the Indian Residential School and belief in assimilation illuminate the historical roots underlying today’s First Nations’ struggles.

Watch Your Tongue
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 272

Watch Your Tongue

Phrases, idioms, and clichés—why do we say the things we say? Watch Your Tongue explores weird and wonderful everyday sayings and what they reveal about us. Do you ever wonder why you shouldn’t have a cow but you should seize a bull by its horns? Who has the better reputation in language—cats or dogs? Do you sometimes feel that our speech is all smoke and mirrors or that our expressions simply make no sense? In Watch Your Tongue, award-winning author Mark Abley explores the phrases, idioms, and clichés of our everyday language. With wit and subtle wisdom, he unravels the mysteries of these expressions, illuminating the history, tradition and stories behind everything we say. Pulling ...

The Silver Palace Restaurant
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 110

The Silver Palace Restaurant

A graceful and humane collection of poems. While its themes stretch from the personal to the political and environmental, its settings range equally widely, both within Canada and beyond.

Ghost Cat
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 32

Ghost Cat

When her beloved cat, Tommy Douglas, dies after many years of companionship, Miss Wilkinson is inconsolable until his spirit returns to give her comfort.

Beyond Forget
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 272

Beyond Forget

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When Earth Leaps Up
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 104

When Earth Leaps Up

This posthumous collection will be a delightful surprise for readers who thought they had heard the last of Anne Szumigalski's nimble, sideslipping, otherworldly voice. Szumigalski's poetic universe is as beguiling and unpredictable as dreams and myth, and like them, her universe can be enchanting, visually lush, and suddenly dangerous

The Tongues of Earth
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 129

The Tongues of Earth

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2015-04-01
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  • Publisher: Coteau Books

Along with the finest pieces from his three previous books, often in revised form, The Tongues of Earth includes 20 new poems. Known as a writer of place, in The Tongues of Earth Abley extends his range over time and history. These poems are distinguished by their combination of clarity and grace, high intelligence and deep feeling. Poems such as “Mother and Son”, “Labrador” and “Glasburyon” are the work of a literary artist with few peers in Canada. To those who have known Abley only as a prose writer, this book will come as a revelation. Endorsed by Julie Bruck, who won the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry in 2012.

Spoken Here
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 340

Spoken Here

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2011-03-22
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  • Publisher: Random House

Half the world's languages are threatened with extinction over the next century, as English and the rest of the world's top twenty languages drive all before them. What ways of looking at the world will die along with them, what cultural riches, what experiences, histories and memories? And how does it feel to be one of the last remaining speakers of a language that is on its way to extinction? What chance is there of saving any of these languages? Is it feasible in the long term or even worthwhile? Mark Abley's journeys among the speakers of languages at the brink takes him to aboriginal Australia (where he meets the last surviving fluent male speaker of Mati Ke, who cannot speak to the only other fluent speaker, as she is his sister and in their culture it is forbidden to speak to siblings once one has reached puberty) and to American Indian reservations, as well as to places where the languages are fighting back - Wales, the Faeroe islands, the Isle of Man - whilst also charting the triumphant return of Hebrew.