Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love

As a linguist who also learned a new language by total immersion and who has always been fascinated by language, I found this book both stimulating and moving. Informed by linguistics without being technical, but also soulful about how the joys and sorrows of language help us be human.

I’m a polyglot plus was raised simultaneously under two languages. Sedivy’s book brings about the development, cultural differences in perception, miscommunications within the same language due to physical restraints as well on touching on a host of other topics. It was a great joy reading such a wonderful book in my opinion written by a fellow linguaphile.

I had hoped that a book titled "Linguaphile" would celebrate language, not be a memoir, in the guise of a book about language.

Julie Sedivy’s <i>Linguaphile</i> is a series of very long essays about the author’s experience with learning languages and her love for languages.The author draws a lot from her personal and professional experience as a linguist. The book is very well researched, but that wasn’t really evident when I was reading it because the bibliography and citations are not mentioned until the very end, so for most of the book, it felt that the author was drawing her own conclusions instead. A lot of statements felt like it was stated to be truth when it really does just reflect upon the author’s own experiences.I also thought that the author’s use of flowery language and metaphoric prose was quite excessive, as well as her segues into her divorce and proceedings. This book really could have benefited from editing, and it wasn’t immediately clear that this is less about the study of linguistics and more personal essays/memoir format.However, there are some wonderful ideas about languages and how it enriches your life and changes your perspective about your relationship to different cultures, and the author is a thoughtful and introspective author.

Lyrical and profound.

Linguaphile is a book for language lovers written with beautiful language by a woman who obviously lives for it. Sedivy weaves her personal story through the somewhat academic book, keeping it accessible. Appropriately, her gift of language shines throughout. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.