The overlong full title of "The Death of the Last Black Man" tells us what it's about, but not what it's really about, which is language — the rich sound and implications of black English.
There's also a separate language knocking about, which is mostly made up of bits and pieces from other languages (but no one speaks it these days, anyway).
There is also the more abstract violence of "language death", about which you have written eloquently in the past.Benjamin StevensAssistant professor of classicsBard CollegeAnnandale-on-Hudson, New YorkSIR – I liked your comment that "groups whose members fail to collaborate in an individually self-sacrificial way may be wiped out entirely".
The logjam on the oil-for-food program was apparently broken when the German compromise gave Russian diplomats their wish by specifiying the "duty" of "occupying powers" under international treaties, and eliminating language about "cooperation with relevant authorities," which the Russians and Syrians said was a way of legitimizing the war.
She had even signed a contract, which contained murky language about the company owning her performances, in all technologies "now known or hereafter developed".
With players from Canada (both French and English) to go with those from the United States, Sweden, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Germany, Norway and elsewhere, some N.H.L. dressing rooms can include conversations in a half-dozen languages, occasionally arguing about which nation has the best players.
And, once you learn one language, it's much easier to pick up others, so no one should really agonize about which language to start with.
She shared my initial uncertainty about which language to speak, but says "Although most people speak to you in Catalan, 99% of people will switch to Spanish if you don't understand".
Efforts to create an EU-wide system of patent law, called a "community patent", have foundered on arguments about which languages patents can be filed in.
And I wasn't very invested in my study of the language initially, because the subjects about which I was passionate were math and physics, at which I was very good, while French, with its unfamiliar sounds and gendered nouns and pleonastic ne's, seemed perversely illogical and therefore extremely difficult.
