Bibliograph

Empires of the Word, a Language History of the World, Nicholas Ostler

Type

Label

Empires of the Word, a Language History of the World, Nicholas Ostler

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 579-589) and index

Illustrations

illustrationsmaps

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Empires of the Word

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

58563178

Responsibility statement

Nicholas Ostler

Sub title

a Language History of the World

Summary

An offbeat natural history of language takes readers from the educational and cultural innovators of Sumeria, to the resilience of Chinese, to the global spread of English, in a volume that offers linguistic perspectives on numerous past and present civilizations

Table Of Contents

Part I: The nature of language history -- Themistocles' carpet -- What it takes to be a world language; or, you never can tell -- Part II: Languages by land -- The desert blooms: language innovation in the Middle East -- Triumphs of fertility: Egyptian and Chinese -- Charming like a creeper: the cultured career of Sanskrit -- Three thousand years of solipsism: the adventures of Greek -- Contesting Europe: Celt, Roman, German and Slav -- The first death of Latin -- Part III: Languages by sea -- The second death of Latin -- Usurpers of greatness: Spanish in the New World -- In the train of empire:Europe's languages abroad -- Microcosm or distorting mirror? the career of English -- Part IV: Languages today and tomorrow -- The current top twenty -- Looking ahead

Creator