Empires of the word : a language history of the world. --

New York, NY, Estados Unidos : Harper Perennial, 2006, c2005.

xxi, 615 p. : il. ; 21 cm.

9780060935726

Incluye notas al pie de página, referencias bibliográficas y bibliografía (Pp. 561-589)

Acknowledgements. -- List of maps, tables and figures. -- Preface. -- Prologue: A clash of languages. -- I. The nature of language history. -- 1. Themistocles' Carpet. -- 2. What it takes to be a world language; or, you never can tell. -- II. Languages by land. -- 3. The desert blooms: language innovation in the Middle East. -- 4. Triumphs of fertility: Egyptian and Chinese. -- 5. Charming like a creeper: The cultured career of Sanskrit. -- 6. Three thousand years of Solipsism: The adventures of Greek. -- 7. Contesting Europe: Celt, Roman, German and Slav. -- 8. The first death of Latin. -- III. Languages by sea. -- 9. The second death of Latin. -- 10. Usurpers of greatness: Spanish in the New World. -- 11. In the train of Empire: Europe's languages abroad. -- 12. Microcosm or distorting mirror? The career of English. -- IV. Languages today and tomorrow. -- 13. The current top twenty. -- IV. Languages today and tomorrow. -- 13. The current top twenty. -- 14. Looking ahead. -- Notes. -- Bibliography. -- Index. --

Tomado de la cubierta: "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."