Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World

Ostler, Nicholas

ISBN 10: 0060935723 ISBN 13: 9780060935726

Verlag: Harper Perennial, 2006

Inhaltsangabe

Empires of the World: a language history of the world

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Críticas:

"What an extraordinary odyssey the author of this superb work embarked upon."--Literary Review

"A work of immense erudition."--Christian Science Monitor

"Delicious! Ostler's book shows how certain lucky languages joined humankind in its spread across the world."--John McWhorter

"Enlightening . . . Always challenging, always instructive--at times, even startling or revolutionary."--Kirkus Reviews

"Covers more rambunctious territory than any other single volume I'm aware of...A wonderful ear for the project's poetry."--John Leonard, Harper's Magazine

"A story of dramatic reversals and puzzling paradoxes. A rich... text with many piercing observations and startling comparisons."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Revolutionary... Executed with a giddying depth of scholarship, yet the detail is never too thick to swamp the general reader."--Boston magazine

"[A] wide-ranging history of the world's languages... [Ostler] brilliantly raises questions and supplies answers or theories."--Washington Post

"True scholarship. A marvelous book, learned and instructive."--National Review

"[A] monumental new book... Ostler furnishes many fresh insights, useful historical anecdotes and charming linguistic oddities."--Chicago Tribune

Reseña del editor:

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.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Harper Perennial
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0060935723
• ISBN 13: 9780060935726
• Einband: Rústica
• Anzahl der Seiten: 640