• eBook Kindle
• 643
• Empires of the Word A Language History of the World
• Nicholas Ostler
• English
• 21 September 2020
• 9780007364893

Nicholas Ostler Î 3 summary

review Empires of the Word A Language History of the World Ô eBook or Kindle ePUB E Word’ is the first to bring together the tales in all their glorious variety the amazing innovations – in education culture and diplomacy – devised by speakers in the Middle East; the uncanny resilience of Chinese throughout twenty centuries of invasions; the progress of Sanskrit from north India to Java and Japan; the struggle that gave birth to the languages of modern Europe; and the global spread of EnglishBesides these epic achievements language failures are eually fascina Wow this book covers a lot of ground and a lot of history I learned a few things that I d been curious about for a long time like why did Ancient Egyptian cease to be spoken Turns out that when the pharaoh was gone the heart went out of old Egyptian religion and the language was adopted as a Christian language Who knew that it does survive but in the liturgy of the Coptic Christian church in Egypt Of course in a book of this scope nothing less than world wide there is no way to discuss all the many languages of mankind It focuses on the top 20 languages kind of a greatest hits album There are obviously many fascinating languages that don t appear or get short shrift If you are academically inclined there are oodles of footnotes which should provide plenty of future research opportunitiesFor me this was probably not a good book to choose as a summer read it is very academic in tone and is definitely not light as summertime reading usually is In fact some evenings it acted as a sleep aid and next evening I would have to re read some pages that my dozy brain just hadn t absorbed the previous dayThat said the book was also an excellent overview of world history and I think I have a better sense of the order of certain events than before And because I am fascinated with language and linguistics I m very glad I persevered and finished the book Winning The Player resilience of Chinese throughout twenty centuries of invasions; the progress of Sanskrit from north India to Java and Japan; the struggle that gave birth to the languages of modern Europe; and the global spread of EnglishBesides these epic achievements language failures are eually fascina Wow this book covers a lot of ground and a lot of history I learned a few things that I d been curious about for a long time like why did Ancient Egyptian cease to be spoken Turns out that when the pharaoh was gone the heart went out of old Egyptian Hell for the Company Brimstone #1 religion and the language was adopted as a Christian language Who knew that it does survive but in the liturgy of the Coptic Christian church in Egypt Of course in a book of this scope nothing less than world wide there is no way to discuss all the many languages of mankind It focuses on the top 20 languages kind of a greatest hits album There are obviously many fascinating languages that don t appear or get short shrift If you are academically inclined there are oodles of footnotes which should provide plenty of future A Year Down Yonder research opportunitiesFor me this was probably not a good book to choose as a summer Getting Naked read it is very academic in tone and is definitely not light as summertime Invisible Jim Crow reading usually is In fact some evenings it acted as a sleep aid and next evening I would have to The Vault Guide to the Case Interview re The Castle Diaries read some pages that my dozy brain just hadn t absorbed the previous dayThat said the book was also an excellent overview of world history and I think I have a better sense of the order of certain events than before And because I am fascinated with language and linguistics I m very glad I persevered and finished the book

review Empires of the Word A Language History of the World Ô eBook or Kindle ePUB Ting why did Germany get left behind Why did Egyptian which had survived foreign takeovers for three millennia succumb to Mohammed’s Arabic Why is Dutch unknown in modern Indonesia given that the Netherlands had ruled the East Indies for as long as the British ruled IndiaAs this book engagingly reveals the language history of the world shows elouently the real characters of peoples; it also shows that the language of the future will like the languages of the past be full of surprise If you read only one book on diachronic sociolinguistics make it this one Ambitious in scope it organizes history into successions of language groups rather than the usual empires and nationsI enjoyed a short tangent the book took into a comparison of Greek and Chinese conceptions of the barbarian They were similar in that barbarian was essentially used to describe those not of the civilized center different in that the Greek version didn t waste much time categorizing barbarian ualities whereas the Chinese had a nuanced typography of barbaric attributesI have a Greek friend who calls me a barbarian One day he ll stop but I may have to clout him over the head with something fierce to help him see reason Say Your Abc With Me ruled the East Indies for as long as the British The Outcast Dead ruled IndiaAs this book engagingly ಅಮ್ಮಾವ್ರ ಗಂಡ reveals the language history of the world shows elouently the Potato Surprise A Brimstone Preuel real characters of peoples; it also shows that the language of the future will like the languages of the past be full of surprise If you Winning The Player read only one book on diachronic sociolinguistics make it this one Ambitious in scope it organizes history into successions of language groups Hell for the Company Brimstone #1 rather than the usual empires and nationsI enjoyed a short tangent the book took into a comparison of Greek and Chinese conceptions of the barbarian They were similar in that barbarian was essentially used to describe those not of the civilized center different in that the Greek version didn t waste much time categorizing barbarian ualities whereas the Chinese had a nuanced typography of barbaric attributesI have a Greek friend who calls me a barbarian One day he ll stop but I may have to clout him over the head with something fierce to help him see A Year Down Yonder reason

read ↠ eBook or Kindle ePUB Î Nicholas Ostler

review Empires of the Word A Language History of the World Ô eBook or Kindle ePUB An unusual and authoritative 'natural history of languages' that narrates the ways in which one language has superseded or outlasted another at different times in historyThe story of the world in the last five thousand years is above all the story of its languages Some shared language is what binds any community together and makes possible both the living of a common history and the telling of itYet the history of the world’s great languages has rarely been examined ‘Empires of th Ostler s erudition is encyclopedic All by himself he wrote this handy one volume language history of the world ranging from Sumerian Akkadian and Aramaic in the ancient world to English in our contemporary scene discussing Egyptian Chinese Sanskrit Greek Latin Spanish and Russian in the course of his immense story The narrative is not one of a triumphal march rather it is a subtle plotting of the rise and fall of languages and so puts the current prevalence of English in much needed perspectiveThroughout the book Ostler is at pains to correct the misconception that empire building has carried the burden of language spread Some conuerors in fact adopted the language of their vanuished foes Even when military might led to language spread what was vital for the permanent adoption of the foreign language was the growth of the language community in which a parent often the mother taught the children her native language The hearth and not the battlefield was where language victories were won or lost Ostler gives four main reasons why an imperial language lives on after the empire disappears The reasons are self explanatory creole eg all the American colonies that became independent from their mother countries in Europe nostalgia why French has hung on in sub Saharan Africa unity the take up of Malay by the newly independent Indonesia and globality the many countries that adopt English In Ostler s terms Singapore has retained English for reasons of unity and globality This is a book I will come back to again and again