Very informative though might not be as interesting to the typical high school reader unless they have special interest in language acquisition or cultural anthropology.

This is an easy read about the likeable members of a tribe in Papua, New Guinea. First of all, I have to give the author props for having the gumption to head into the darkest of rainforests (the only way to reach the village of Gapun is to traverse rivers and thick forests for hours) multiple times.

At first, the author’s statement that all Papuans not-so-secretly want to be white people was a bit off-putting. As I read further, I understood what he meant – they wanted to be successful, not necessarily turning their back on their race.

I also marveled at the author’s dedication to learning, then transcribing Tayap, the difficult language of Gapun. There are gender-related endings to words, which confused him in the beginning, but then he was able to create a large body of work describing the grammar and vocabulary of the Gapuners. Their language is slowly being replaced by one called Tok Pisin, which is a pidgin version of English. The lamentable reason for this loss of language is that the younger generations don’t wish to learn to speak Tayap – they feel that is for old people and choose to speak Tok Pisin instead. Once the elders of the tribe pass away, so will Tayap, preserved only in the author’s memory and his comprehensive body of work. That seems poignant to me; working so hard to preserve something that is vanishing before your very eyes. The fact that this language was confined to less than 500 humans at the time of writing is mind -boggling. Another poignant thought is that while these villagers were sharing their language with the author, they were also sharing the memories of their lives. As Kulick puts it: “Today, those recordings are all that remains of their stories, songs, and explanations”.

The author relates stories of his time in Gapun, complete with self-deprecating humor and details that will make you cringe (imagine eating grubs or maggots?) or make you smile ( an intrepid youngster dubs himself the “security” guarding the author and subsequently stays by his side zealously).

DEATH OF A LANGUAGE is a wonderfully written book that will make you think about many things -the loss of this language, the circle of life, and the strength of this anthropologist who devoted so much of his life to these villagers.

I went into this book completely blind, having only the vague notion that Papua New Guinea was somewhere in Oceania and curious to read something totally outside of my usual picks. I figured it would probably be boring, but I would slog through it for the sake of expanding my horizons.

I was quite wrong.

This book was fascinating, honest, playful, and a bit convicting. The author doesn't shy away from honestly discussing some of their beliefs and practices that would be considered bizarre to American readers, but at the same time he writes the villagers in such a way that they don't seem so different from us; I could imagine myself sitting on one of their verandas, bouncing my son on my lap and gossiping with the other ladies.

It piqued my interest on this small country I hadn't considered before. I found myself constantly taking Google breaks to learn more about something or look at a map.

The author managed to walk a fine line in terms of treating the villagers with dignity and pointing out how when cultures collide, some differences are pretty funny. Take for example his experiences eating Gapun haute cuisine, including a stew full of thumb-sized maggots whose poo the chef forgot to remove before cooking. (To be fair, he points out that Gapuners would likewise be repulsed at some of the things you would find in Michelin 3-star restaurants.)

His chapter on the complexities and poeticism of Tayap vulgarities is hilarious and endeared these people to me. As much as I want to share some of the more creative profanities, it's really best if you stumble upon them in the book and laugh out loud in a public place like I did.

While I haven't spent any of my life (until this book) imagining what life is like in a tiny village in Papua New Guinea, Gapuners have certainly spent a lot of time imagining what my life might be like as a fair-skinned person in America. And, while I might not consider myself wealthy by American standards, the legacy of colonialism has granted me a lifestyle beyond the reach of Gapuners . What responsibilities do I/we have in the face of this deficit? The author doesn't offer answers, but it's certainly worth pondering.

So, in sum: an enjoyable book about anthropology/linguistics that doesn't require a Ph.D to understand and appreciate. Highly recommended.

I was captivated by this book, and still am. To be honest, before I started reading it I thought it might be a tad boring. Boy was I wrong. This book I could honestly say is non-fiction that reads like fiction.

There was a very small portion early in the book that went over some language nerdy stuff, but it was brief and didn’t drag down the book at all. Kulick stated this book was written for the layperson, not an academic endeavor like his first book. Here he wanted to give to the world an insight on what life is like for the villagers in a small, very remote village, deep in the rainforest in Papua New Guinea. And Kulick wanted to tell the story of why their native language is dying, as it speaks to a larger issue of the world today, and of the past.

The village is Gapun and Tayap is the dying language Kulick studied. The villagers are now speaking Tok Pisin (a form of Pidgin English) instead. Papua New Guinea has more diverse languages than any other country; nearly every village has its own language. And they aren’t variants or dialects either, completely different language, and most spoken by about 500 people or less. It is their way of differing themselves where they came from.

Kulick tells a good story here. He intersperses action with explanations. He strings the reader along, and you don’t mind. There are some moments where you laugh, and some you cringe, and there are moments of disbelief.

Kulick states somewhat near the end of the book that there are no undiscovered tribes left. First contact can never be again, as that is now all in the past. It reminds me of Bill McKibben’s book The End of Nature, which the premise is that all nature has been affected by humans, and this goes as well for “wild” humans as well.

I could keep going, but this review is already getting long. I hope this book will be read, it’s well written, entertaining and informative. And to learn about this dying culture is important. It is the least we can do.