‘Tongue Tied’ is a short tour through Europe via some of its most at-risk languages. In a series of four articles, Columnist Kieran McGreevy will examine four languages from across the corners of Europe, with the aim of showing what has led these languages to the brink of extinction (and sometimes back), by untying the history of the people, the linguistics of the language itself, and the efforts being made to keep these tongues alive. In the last instalment, Kieran looks at Ume Sámi, a descendent of Uralic language used along the north of Sweden, and how it differs from Scandinavian languages.

With her first article as columnist, Camilla Allibone proposes a rediscovery of the celebrated Italian Renaissance through the lens of the female experience.