Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World
 
See larger image
 

Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World (Hardcover)

by Nicholas Ostler (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


7 used from £14.65
12 Days of Christmas Sale in Books
Get up to 65% off some of our top titles. Shop now

Special Offers and Product Promotions


Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
   Empires Of The World opens new browser window
www.Ask.com  -  Search for Empires Of The World Find Empires of the world 
   Empires the world opens new browser window
SHOP.COM  -  Save on Empires the world Sales Now On! 
  
 

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Unfolding of Language: The Evolution of Mankind`s greatest Invention

The Unfolding of Language: The Evolution of Mankind`s greatest Invention

by Guy Deutscher
4.7 out of 5 stars (6)  £6.46
The Talking Ape: How Language Evolved (Studies in the Evolution of Language)

The Talking Ape: How Language Evolved (Studies in the Evolution of Language)

by Robbins Burling
3.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £11.88
Genes, Peoples and Languages (Penguin Press Science)

Genes, Peoples and Languages (Penguin Press Science)

by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza
3.0 out of 5 stars (7)  £5.73
Writing Systems of the World: Alphabets, Syllabaries, Pictograms

Writing Systems of the World: Alphabets, Syllabaries, Pictograms

by Akira Nakanishi
4.3 out of 5 stars (3)  £8.72
Speak: A Short History of Languages

Speak: A Short History of Languages

by Tore Janson
4.5 out of 5 stars (6)  £6.26
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 624 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; First Edition edition (21 Feb 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007118708
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007118700
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 4.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 419,424 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Review

'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 off them eventually vanishing without a trace, and one of them - guess which? - currently ruling the planet.' - John McWhorter, author of THE POWER OF BABEL: THE NATURAL HISTORY OF LANGUAGE

A dense but enlightening account of how the world's written languages were born, how they spread and changed, how some weakened and died, how others thrived. This heavy, sturdy text rests on a foundation of scholarship and erudition so broad and deep that it will elicit gasps of admiration from professional linguists and assorted logophiles, though its very complexity and comprehensiveness may overwhelm general readers. Even the epigraphs-and there are myriads-are demanding, even daunting. British scholar Ostler (chair of the Foundation for Endangered Languages) notes that there are as many as 7,000 language communities in the world, but many have relatively few speakers, and many have no written form. He proceeds to relate a history of the world as a linguist would see it. Accordingly, although the encounter, say, between Cortes and the Aztecs has interest for military and cultural historians, Ostler views it, as well, as a clash between languages, both of which had long traditions. He proceeds to look at languages in the Middle East (Sumerian, Akkadian, Aramaic, Phoenician, Arabic, Persian, etc.), then turns to consider Egyptian and Chinese and attributes their stability, in part, to high population density. He discusses Sanskrit (a "luxuriant" language with its "blending of sexual and mystical imagery"), then Greek, Celtic, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese and many, many others. His style is to raise questions and then answer them. Why didn't Dutch linger in Indonesia? How did French become a prestige language? Why haven't Russian and German and Japanese spread more than they have? How did English, with its multiple parents, spread so rapidly and pervasively? How did it standardize? What are the most dominant languages today? Why do people learn some languages more easily than others? What are the forces that might weaken the current hegemony of English around the world? Always challenging, always instructive-at times, even startling or revolutionary. The issues and concerns and discoveries here merit far wider attention than this sometimes turgid text will attract. (maps and charts throughout) (Kirkus Reviews)


New Statesman

'ambitious and well-researched'

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?


 

Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
81 of 82 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars History speaks, 25 Sep 2006
By Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
This impressive work is a study of language dynamics over five millennia. Ostler deals with the birth, rise and decline of those languages that spread most widely through history, and the factors that played a part, like trade, conquest and culture. Of course the book is also by definition a history of civilization. The narrative begins in Sumeria and ends with English as the most important international language of today. The author rightly observes that the study of language history and historical linguistics will be mutually rewarding. He also attempts to indirectly capture the inward history of languages & the subtle mindsets that characterize individual ones, especially as regards the abandonment of mother tongues for new languages.

Part Two: Languages by Land, looks at the Middle & Far East: Sumerian, Akkadian, Phoenician, Aramaic, Arabic, Turkish & Persian, Egyptian & Chinese whilst chapters 5 & 6 considers Sanskrit & Greek respectively. The last two chapters deal with Celtic, Latin, German & Slavic. Part Three: Languages by Sea, explores the spread of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and the remarkable career of English. Part Four deals with the current Top 20 languages and reflects on the meaning and implications of the global survey.

The life-spans of languages differ greatly; if one compares Latin with Greek, for instance, Greek continued to thrive under Roman hegemony alongside Latin and eventually supplanted Latin again in the Byzantine Empire. Some significant civilizational languages like Latin and Sanskrit have all but died as spoken tongues, but they gave birth to rich families of related languages, whilst Old Chinese's pictographic script still serves its daughter languages very well.

A major change occurred around the 16th century when the European voyages of discovery spread the languages of Europe far and wide to the Americas, Africa and Asia. Launched by trade, these languages became tongues of empire through conquest. In that way Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and English spread around the globe. Dutch gave rise to the vibrant Afrikaans in Southern Africa and lingers on in some form or other in Suriname and on some tiny Caribbean islands but has disappeared from Indonesia. French & Russian are in decline, having lost much prestige and many speakers the last few decades.

Ostler differentiates between languages that grew organically (like Chinese) and those that grew by "merger and acquisition". Of the former, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more than a billion people whilst English with around 500 million, is in second place. Hindi (derived from Sanskrit) is third with about 490 million, followed by Spanish in 4th place with 418 million speakers. Of course as a second language, English is of greater global importance than Mandarin. The book is full of fascinating facts and stuff that will appeal to linguists and hobbyists alike. For example: There are an estimated 7000 linguistic communities today, but at least half of them are on the verge of extinction with fewer than 5000 speakers. Within one generation many of these languages will disappear.

Migration was the primary cause of language spread. Global navigation arrived later and today we have electronic communication. There is an interesting passage of speculation on the future of English. Ostler identifies prestige & learnability as the two main growth factors in creating a larger human community. The first might offer wealth, wisdom or literary enjoyment to attract speakers. The ability to learn a new language depends on structural similarities between the population group's existing language & the new one. Owing to structural correspondences, Arabic took root where Afro-Asiatic languages like Egyptian & Aramaic were spoken but it could not displace Persian or Spanish. It is well known that speakers of Japanese learn Turkish easily but battle with English for the same reason.

For those interested in the many facets of language, I also recommend: On the Origin of Languages and A Guide to the World's Languages by Merritt Ruhlen, The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher, Genes, Peoples, and Languages & The Great Human Diasporas by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza plus The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language by John McWhorter. As a linguistic history of the world, Empires Of The Word is unique, highly readable and a valuable reference source. It contains many tables & figures as well as beautiful and informative maps. This well-researched and absorbing work concludes with notes, an index and a bibliography.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and Readable, 29 April 2007
By David Welsh (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This is an excellent book for people with a reasonably serious interest in languages and/or history. It's a fairly hefty tome, but I felt that the author struck just the right balance between weighty analysis and detailed information on the one hand, and readability and flow on the other. The author's passion for language and interest in how languages evolve and develop is evident - and infectious.

I would say Empires of the Word's main strength is the fact that it focuses is on how languages change and interact with each other over the centuries. I haven't come across any other book that attempts to do this in anything like as comprehensive a way as Nicholas Ostler has here. The broad historical perspective he takes allows him to draw fascinating parallels between the ways very different languages in very different parts of the world have evolved and influenced each other.

Whilst the different sections do reference each other, it's quite possible to just read the part dealing with a particular language that you're interested in. So if you want to find out about how Spanish spread throughout South America, or how and why the Egyptians stopped speaking Egyptian and started speaking Arabic, or get a potted history of how Sanskrit has influenced Asian culture, you can just open the book at the relevant chapter and start reading. (And if the kind of topics I've just mentioned don't make you think "Ooh, that sounds interesting!" then this maybe isn't the book for you...)
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
65 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars History speaks!, 1 Aug 2005
By Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
This impressive work is a study of language dynamics over 5 millennia. The author deals with the birth, rise and decline of languages through history, and the factors that played a part, like trade, conquest and culture. The narrative begins in Sumeria and ends with English as the most important international language of today. The style is engaging throughout.

Of course the book is also by definition a history of civilisation, focusing on prominent languages like Egyptian, Akkadian, Sanskrit, Chinese, Greek, Latin and the larger European languages. The life-spans of languages differ greatly, if one compares Latin with Greek, for instance, since Greek continued to thrive under Roman hegemony alongside Latin. It eventually supplanted Latin again in the Byzantine Empire.

Some significant civilisational languages like Latin and Sanskrit have all but died as spoken tongues, but they gave birth to rich families of related languages, whilst Old Chinese's pictographic script still serves its daughter languages very well.

A major change occurred around the 16th century when the European voyages of discovery spread the languages of Europe far and wide to the Americas, Africa and Asia. Launched by trade, these languages became tongues of empire through conquest. In that way Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and English spread around the globe.

Dutch gave rise to the vibrant Afrikaans in Southern Africa and lingers on in some form or other in Suriname and on some tiny Caribbean islands. French is in decline, having lost much prestige and many speakers the last few decades.

Ostler differentiates between languages that grew organically (like Chinese) and the aforementioned ones that grew by "merger and acquisition". Of the former, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more than a billion people whilst English with around 500 million, is in second place. Hindi (derived from Sanskrit) is third with about 490 million, followed by Spanish in 4th place with 418 million speakers. Of course as a second language, English is of greater global importance than Mandarin.

The book is full of fascinating facts and stuff that will appeal to all those interested in language - linguists and hobbyists alike. For example: There are an estimated 7000 linguistic communities today, but at least half of them are on the verge of extinction with fewer than 5000 speakers. Within one generation, many of these languages will disappear.

For those interested in the many facets of language, I also recommend: On The Origin Of Language and A Guide To The World's Languages by Merritt Ruhlen, The Unfolding Of Language by Gary Deutscher, How To Kill a Dragon by Calvert Watkins, Genes, Peoples, and Languages by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza and The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language by John McWhorter. For written examples of many languages, there is The Book Of A Thousand Tongues by the United Bible Societies.

Empires Of The Word contains many beautiful and informative maps. This well-researched and engaging work concludes with notes, an index and a bibliography.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars not (really) for linguists
Intended to be, as the author states in the last page, a study in diachronic sociolinguistics (that is a study of the varying social ranks and uses of several world languages... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Furio

1.0 out of 5 stars dreadful paper
I don't want to comment on the books contents, mereley the paper it is printed on. My copy, Harper Collins hard back 2005 edition published at £30. Read more
Published 18 months ago by J. Crawford

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book
Ok, i bought this at the British Museum so i was expecting heavyweight but its actually REALLY readable- TIP if you get to a paragraph with letters with funny squiggles or lines... Read more
Published on 9 Sep 2007 by M. Notman

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating study
This book seeks to examine the history of the world through the spread of languages and the empires that built those languages. Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2007 by Seth J. Frantzman

5.0 out of 5 stars Audacious scope, masterly execution
The subject of the rise and fall of the great world languages embraces by necessity nearly every area of human endeavour, not least political, economic, cultural and social... Read more
Published on 17 Jul 2007 by Dikaiopolis

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing and ultimately unfinishable
I was really looking forward to this book. I'm no expert in linguistics or language history and I was anticipating a degree of enlightenment by reading this. Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2007 by Mike J. Wheeler

5.0 out of 5 stars The travails of tongues
Language is a touchy issue. Here in Canada, it's the foundation for our "Two Solitudes" of Anglo- and Franco-Canadians. Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2006 by Stephen A. Haines

5.0 out of 5 stars extrordinary achievement
The scope of this ambitious book is awesome. For once the enthusiastic newspaper
reviews have been right about its range and brilliance. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2006

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting information, badly written
I like this book a lot because of the scope of the work and the depth of research that is apparent by reading it. Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2006 by monkeybanjo

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.