Empires of the Word - Nicholas Ostler
EMPIRES
OF THE
WORD
A Language History of the World
NICHOLAS OSTLER
To Jane
SINE QVA NON
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
PREFACE
PROLOGUE: A CLASH OF LANGUAGES
PART I: THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE HISTORY
1 Themistocles’ Carpet
The language view of human history
The state of nature
Literacy and the beginning of language history
2 What It Takes to Be a World Language; or, You Never Can Tell
PART II: LANGUAGES BY LAND
3 The Desert Blooms: Language Innovation in ...