"Debout dans Babel", Language in Europe

"Debout dans Babel. Langues en Europe" ("Standing in Babel. Languages in Europe") is the title of the new book published by Dutch publishing house Ons Erfdeel. This carefully edited volume has been published in three languages: French, English, and Dutch.

The volume's editor, Reinier Salverda, summarizes the project in the prologue: "(...) we may speak many languages, but we all grow up with just one, our mother tongue."

This is the collection's common thread. Sixteen European writers were invited to write about the relationship that ties them to their maternal language; to talk about the importance of their maternal language, as well as their other languages, in their work and in their lives; to explain the place of their mother tongue.

Basque, authored by Bernardo Atxaga, is included among the many European languages (Italian, English, Finnish, etc.) that appear in this volume. Two immigrant languages, Turkish and Berber, are also included.