| Edition |
1st American ed. |
| Description |
xxi, 615 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. 579-589) and index. |
| Contents |
Part I: The nature of language history -- Themistocles' carpet -- What it takes to be a world language; or, you never can tell -- Part II: Languages by land -- The desert blooms: language innovation in the Middle East -- Triumphs of fertility: Egyptian and Chinese -- Charming like a creeper: the cultured career of Sanskrit -- Three thousand years of solipsism: the adventures of Greek -- Contesting Europe: Celt, Roman, German and Slav -- The first death of Latin -- Part III: Languages by sea -- The second death of Latin -- Usurpers of greatness: Spanish in the New World -- In the train of empire:Europe's languages abroad -- Microcosm or distorting mirror? the career of English -- Part IV: Languages today and tomorrow -- The current top twenty -- Looking ahead. |
| Summary |
An offbeat natural history of language takes readers from the educational and cultural innovators of Sumeria, to the resilience of Chinese, to the global spread of English, in a volume that offers linguistic perspectives on numerous past and present civilizations. |
| Subject |
Language and languages.
|
|
Historical linguistics.
|
| ISBN |
0066210860 |
|
9780066210865 |
|
