Empires of the Word - A Language History of the world
Verlag | HarperCollins UK |
Auflage | 2006 |
Seiten | 640 |
Format | 20,5 cm |
Gewicht | 461 g |
Artikeltyp | Englisches Buch |
ISBN-10 | 0060935723 |
EAN | 9780060935726 |
Bestell-Nr | 06093572EA |
Offers a 'natural history of languages' that narrates the ways in which one language has superseded another at different times in history. This book reveals that the language history of the world shows the real characters of peoples; it also shows that the language of the future will, like the languages of the past, be full of surprises.
Greek, Sanskrit, Mandarin Chinese and English that has led to their supremacy at different times.
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.
Rezension:
"[A] wide-ranging history of the world's languages... [Ostler] brilliantly raises questions and supplies answers or theories." Washington Post