Part I Linguistic preliminaries: Approach and theory. Introductory note: On language ; All Languages were once Spanglish ; The language loop ; Linguistics and classification -- Part II Effects of power. Introductory note: On power ; Effects of the nation-state and the possibility of Kurdistan ; The development of writing in the litmus of religion and politics ; Language planning and language law: Shaping the right to speak -- Part III Effects of movement. Introductory note: On movement ; A mobile history: mapping language stocks and families ; Colonial consequences: language stocks and families remapped ; Postcolonial complications: violent outcomes -- Part IV Effects of time. Introductory note: On time ; The remote past: language becomes embodied ; The recorded past: 'catching up to conditions' made visible ; The imagined future: globalization and the fate of endangered languages.