Empires of the Word
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Nicholas Ostler's Empires of the Word is the first history of the world's great tongues, gloriously celebrating the wonder of words that binds communities together and makes possible both the living of a common history and the telling of it. From the uncanny resilience of Chinese through twenty centuries of invasions to the engaging self-regard of Greek and to the struggles that gave birth to the languages of modern Europe, these epic achievements and more are brilliantly explored, as are the fascinating failures of once "universal" languages. A splendid, authoritative, and remarkable work, it demonstrates how the language history of the world eloquently reveals the real character of our planet's diverse peoples and prepares us for a linguistic future full of surprises.
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An excellent engaging book on the history of languages! I had already known that basically most of the languages of Europe were related to each other, and even with languages in India if one looks far back enough. But to answer the question of why certain languages spread and others don't, or as to why certain languages even retreat, I hadn't known. The book can at times be a little dry, and I'll admit I didn't bother trying to pronounce ancient languages beyond the older versions of English shown in the book. Amazingly though, I didn't really need to know this pronunciation. What Ostler provided in English was enough for me to follow language structure, changes, and relationships, even if it wasn't necessarily enough for me to speak the older languages at even the most basic level.
I was particularly intrigued by English. Obviously, there are many words in English whose spelling bears no resemblance to their pronunciation, a fact that native English speakers are told time and time again makes it one of the hardest languages to learn. I've been listening to the History of English podcast and so have some idea of this, but the history, intertwined with other languages, is fascinating. And he gives a convincing argument as to why English is so dominant in the world today, beyond anything one might possibly imagine, even accounting for the size of the British Empire in the 1800s. Actually, after reading some of his reasoning behind the death of language, one then has to wonder how it lasted in some places, but he explains it.
This is not to say that the book is entirely without flaws. He readily admits to some speculation, and to a certain degree, this is almost inevitable. He makes a case and then readily points out exceptions to the rule, which is definitely possible. But in several places, the logic he uses justifying why one language spread, he then uses the exact same reason to justify why another language died out! And he does so without calling it an exception to the rule! This happened a few times and left me questioning his logic at times.
Overall, an excellent book! If one wants to know about how language spreads, how it dies, and where he things languages are going, and especially English, pick this up!
