Empires of the Word - Nicholas Ostler [362]
the language
What sort of a language?
Westward Ho!
Pirates and planters
Someone else’s land
Manifest destiny
Winning ways
Changing perspective—English in India
A merchant venture
Protestantism, profit and progress
Success, despite the best intentions
The world taken by storm
An empire completed
Wonder upon wonder
English among its peers
PART IV: LANGUAGES TODAY AND TOMORROW
13 The Current Top Twenty
14 Looking Ahead
What is old
What is new
Way to go
Three threads: Freedom, prestige and learnability
Freedom
Prestige
What makes a language learnable
Vaster than empires
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
About the Author
PRAISE FOR Empires of the Word
Copyright
About the Publisher