Empires of the Word: A Language History of the WorldIf the history of languages has taught us anything, Nicholas Ostler argues, it is that no language - however populous its speakers, confident its culture and advanced its technology - has remained the linga franca indefinitely. As the technological and cultural dominance of America has consolidated the territorial achievements of the British Empire, the English language (aided by the predominantly Anglophone Internet) has apparently never had it so good. And yet the long-term dominance of English will inevitably, in due course, give way. Will English be displaced in world terms by a language such as Mandarin Chinese, which has been a great regional player since well before English emerged as an offshoot of Anglo-Saxon, French and Norse? |
Contents
A CLASH OF LANGUAGES | 1 |
Themistocles Carpet | 7 |
What It Takes to Be a World Language or You Never Can Tell | 18 |
Copyright | |
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Africa Akkadian alphabet America Anatolia ancient Arabic Aramaic Asia Aśoka Assyrian Babylon became Britain British Buddhist Celtic Celts cent central centre century BC China Chinese Christian civilisation classical coast colonies conquest culture dialects dominance Dutch dynasty early east eastern effect Egypt Egyptian elite English Europe European fact foreign France French Gaul Gaulish German global Greek guage Hittite Inca India Indian inscriptions invasion Islam Japanese king kingdom known land language community later Latin lingua franca linguistic literary major Mediterranean Mesopotamia Mexico military millennium million modern Mongol Muslim Nahuatl native neighbours never northern Persian Persian empire Phoenician political population Portuguese Prakrit Punic Quechua Roman empire Russian Sanskrit script Semitic Semitic languages South-East southern Spain Spanish speak speakers spoken spread Sumer Sumerian survived Syria texts tion trade tradition Turkic vernacular western words writing written