Empires of the Word - Nicholas Ostler [360]
“[A] wide-ranging history of the world’s languages…. [Ostler] brilliantly raises questions and supplies answers or theories.”
—Washington Post
“Delicious! Few books on language answer the questions that people actually ask linguists, such as why some languages are spoken by millions and others by just a few hundred. Ostler’s book shows how certain lucky languages joined humankind in its spread across the world, many of them eventually vanishing without a trace, and one of them—guess which?—currently ruling the planet.”
—John McWhorter
“Daring insight…. Sparkles with arcane knowledge, shrewd perceptions, and fresh ideas…. I can’t think of a volume that has better interpreted the linguistic history of Eurasia, from Sumerian onwards, or of the entire world in the post-Columbian era. The sheer sweep of his analysis is breathtaking … A book such as this could only have been written by someone of considerable audacity as well as erudition.”
—Times Literary Supplement
“Enlightening…. Always challenging, always instructive—at times, even startling or revolutionary.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Few books bring more excitement to the study of language.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Ostler’s new history is as much about societies as it is about the languages they speak…. One of the lessons that shines through the book is that neither conquest nor economic might guarantees a language’s survival.”
—The Economist
“Ambitious and accessible…. This stimulating book is a history of the world as seen through the spread and demise of languages.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A masterly comparative analysis of empires’ linguistic effects throughout history…. Ostler writes in a concise yet engaging manner, displaying an impressive grasp of the history of languages…. This book is accessible to anyone with an interest in language.”
—Library Journal
Copyright
First published in Great Britain in 2005 by HarperCollins Publishers.
First U.S. edition published in 2005 by HarperCollins Publishers.
EMPIRES OF THE WORD. Copyright © 2005 by Nicholas Ostler.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © OCTOBER 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-04735-9
FIRST HARPER PERENNIAL EDITION published 2006.
The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows:
Ostler, Nicholas.
Empires of the word : a language history of the world /
Nicholas Ostler.—1st American ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-06-621086-0
1. Language and languages—History. I. Title.
P107.088 2005
409—dc22 2005046010
ISBN-10: 0-06-093572-3 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-093572-6 (pbk.)
06 07 08 09 10 RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
PREFACE
PROLOGUE: A CLASH OF LANGUAGES
PART I: THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE HISTORY
1 Themistocles’ Carpet
2 What It Takes to Be