Empires Of The Word A Language History Of The World

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Empires of the Word

Author : Nicholas Ostler
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062047353
Total Pages : 541 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Empires of the Word by : Nicholas Ostler

Download or read book Empires of the Word written by Nicholas Ostler and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-03-22 with total page 541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World

Author : Nicholas Ostler
Publisher : HarperCollins UK
ISBN 13 : 000736489X
Total Pages : 943 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by : Nicholas Ostler

Download or read book Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World written by Nicholas Ostler and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2010-02-25 with total page 943 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unusual and authoritative 'natural history of languages' that narrates the ways in which one language has superseded or outlasted another at different times in history.

Empires of the Word

Author : Nicholas Ostler
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0066210860
Total Pages : 644 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (662 download)

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Book Synopsis Empires of the Word by : Nicholas Ostler

Download or read book Empires of the Word written by Nicholas Ostler and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2005-06-28 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the world in the last five thousand years is above all the story of its languages. Some shared language is what binds any community together and makes possible both the living of a common history and the telling of it. Yet the history of the world's great languages has been very little told. Empires of the Word, by the wide-ranging linguist Nicholas Ostler, is the first to bring together the tales in all their glorious variety: the amazing innovations in education, culture, and diplomacy devised by speakers of Sumerian and its successors in the Middle East, right up to the Arabic of the present day; the uncanny resilience of Chinese through twenty centuries of invasions; the charmed progress of Sanskrit from north India to Java and Japan; the engaging self-regard of Greek; the struggles that gave birth to the languages of modern Europe; and the global spread of English. Besides these epic ahievements, language failures are equally fascinating: Why did German get left behind? Why did Egyptian, which had survived foreign takeovers for three millennia, succumb to Mohammed's Arabic? Why is Dutch unknown in modern Indonesia, though the Netherlands had ruled the East Indies for as long as the British ruled India? As this book splendidly and authoritatively reveals, the language history of the world shows eloquently the real character of peoples; and, for all the recent tehnical mastery of English, nothing guarantees our language's long-term preeminence. The language future, like the language past, will be full of surprises.

Babel

Author : Gaston Dorren
Publisher : Atlantic Monthly Press
ISBN 13 : 0802146724
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (21 download)

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Book Synopsis Babel by : Gaston Dorren

Download or read book Babel written by Gaston Dorren and published by Atlantic Monthly Press. This book was released on 2018-12-04 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Babel is an endlessly interesting book, and you don’t have to have any linguistic training to enjoy it . . . it’s just so much fun to read.” —NPR English is the world language, except that 80 percent of the world doesn’t speak it. Linguist Gaston Dorren calculates that to speak fluently with half of the world’s people in their mother tongues, you’d need to know no fewer than twenty languages. In Babel, he sets out to explore these top twenty world languages, which range from the familiar (French, Spanish) to the surprising (Malay, Javanese, Bengali). Whisking readers along on a delightful journey, he traces how these languages rose to greatness while others fell away, and shows how speakers today handle the foibles of their mother tongues. Whether showcasing tongue-tying phonetics, elegant but complicated writing scripts, or mind-bending quirks of grammar, Babel vividly illustrates that mother tongues are like nations: each has its own customs and beliefs that seem as self-evident to those born into it as they are surprising to outsiders. Babel reveals why modern Turks can’t read books that are a mere 75 years old, what it means in practice for Russian and English to be relatives, and how Japanese developed separate “dialects” for men and women. Dorren also shares his experiences studying Vietnamese in Hanoi, debunks ten myths about Chinese characters, and discovers the region where Swahili became the lingua franca. Witty and utterly fascinating, Babel will change how you look at and listen to the world. “Word nerds of every strain will enjoy this wildly entertaining linguistic study.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Through the Language Glass

Author : Guy Deutscher
Publisher : Metropolitan Books
ISBN 13 : 9781429970112
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Through the Language Glass by : Guy Deutscher

Download or read book Through the Language Glass written by Guy Deutscher and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2010-08-31 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A masterpiece of linguistics scholarship, at once erudite and entertaining, confronts the thorny question of how—and whether—culture shapes language and language, culture Linguistics has long shied away from claiming any link between a language and the culture of its speakers: too much simplistic (even bigoted) chatter about the romance of Italian and the goose-stepping orderliness of German has made serious thinkers wary of the entire subject. But now, acclaimed linguist Guy Deutscher has dared to reopen the issue. Can culture influence language—and vice versa? Can different languages lead their speakers to different thoughts? Could our experience of the world depend on whether our language has a word for "blue"? Challenging the consensus that the fundaments of language are hard-wired in our genes and thus universal, Deutscher argues that the answer to all these questions is—yes. In thrilling fashion, he takes us from Homer to Darwin, from Yale to the Amazon, from how to name the rainbow to why Russian water—a "she"—becomes a "he" once you dip a tea bag into her, demonstrating that language does in fact reflect culture in ways that are anything but trivial. Audacious, delightful, and field-changing, Through the Language Glass is a classic of intellectual discovery.

The Last Lingua Franca

Author : Nicholas Ostler
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0802717713
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (27 download)

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Book Synopsis The Last Lingua Franca by : Nicholas Ostler

Download or read book The Last Lingua Franca written by Nicholas Ostler and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-11-23 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the rise and fall of English as the most widely spoken language in human history and discusses what language will overtake its dominance as English-speaking nations are challenged by the rising wealth of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Passwords to Paradise

Author : Nicholas Ostler
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1620405172
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (24 download)

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Book Synopsis Passwords to Paradise by : Nicholas Ostler

Download or read book Passwords to Paradise written by Nicholas Ostler and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-02-23 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." So opens the Gospel of John, an ancient text translated into almost every language, at once a compelling and beguiling metaphor for the Christian story of the Beginning. To further complicate matters, the words we read now are in any number of languages that would have been unknown or unrecognizable at the time of their composition. The gospel may have been originally dictated or written in Aramaic, but our only written source for the story is in Greek. Today, as your average American reader of the New Testament picks up his or her Bible off the shelf, the phrase as it appears has been translated from various linguistic intermediaries before its current manifestation in modern English. How to understand these words then, when so many other translators, languages, and cultures have exercised some level of influence on them? Christian tradition is not unique in facing this problem. All religions--if they have global aspirations--have to change in order to spread their influence, and often language has been the most powerful agent thereof. Passwords to Paradise explores the effects that language difference and language conversion have wrought on the world's great faiths, spanning more than two thousand years. It is an original and intriguing perspective on the history of religion by a master linguistic historian.

Linguistics in a Colonial World

Author : Joseph Errington
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1444329057
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (443 download)

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Book Synopsis Linguistics in a Colonial World by : Joseph Errington

Download or read book Linguistics in a Colonial World written by Joseph Errington and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-04-30 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on both original texts and critical literature, Linguistics in a Colonial World surveys the methods, meanings, and uses of early linguistic projects around the world. Explores how early endeavours in linguistics were used to aid in overcoming practical and ideological difficulties of colonial rule Traces the uses and effects of colonial linguistic projects in the shaping of identities and communities that were under, or in opposition to, imperial regimes Examines enduring influences of colonial linguistics in contemporary thinking about language and cultural difference Brings new insight into post-colonial controversies including endangered languages and language rights in the globalized twenty-first century

Empire and Communications

Author : Harold Adams Innis
Publisher : DigiCat
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (596 download)

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Book Synopsis Empire and Communications by : Harold Adams Innis

Download or read book Empire and Communications written by Harold Adams Innis and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-08-01 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Empire and Communications" by Harold Adams Innis. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Empires of the Sea

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004407677
Total Pages : 371 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Empires of the Sea by :

Download or read book Empires of the Sea written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-10-07 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Empires of the Sea brings together studies of maritime empires from the Bronze Age to the Eighteenth Century. The volume aims to establish maritime empires as a category for the (comparative) study of premodern empires, and from a partly ‘non-western’ perspective. The book includes contributions on Mycenaean sea power, Classical Athens, the ancient Thebans, Ptolemaic Egypt, The Genoese Empire, power networks of the Vikings, the medieval Danish Empire, the Baltic empire of Ancien Régime Sweden, the early modern Indian Ocean, the Melaka Empire, the (non-European aspects of the) Portuguese Empire and Dutch East India Company, and the Pirates of Caribbean.

Empires in World History

Author : Jane Burbank
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400834708
Total Pages : 528 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Empires in World History by : Jane Burbank

Download or read book Empires in World History written by Jane Burbank and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How empires have used diversity to shape the world order for more than two millennia Empires—vast states of territories and peoples united by force and ambition—have dominated the political landscape for more than two millennia. Empires in World History departs from conventional European and nation-centered perspectives to take a remarkable look at how empires relied on diversity to shape the global order. Beginning with ancient Rome and China and continuing across Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa, Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper examine empires' conquests, rivalries, and strategies of domination—with an emphasis on how empires accommodated, created, and manipulated differences among populations. Burbank and Cooper examine Rome and China from the third century BCE, empires that sustained state power for centuries. They delve into the militant monotheism of Byzantium, the Islamic Caliphates, and the short-lived Carolingians, as well as the pragmatically tolerant rule of the Mongols and Ottomans, who combined religious protection with the politics of loyalty. Burbank and Cooper discuss the influence of empire on capitalism and popular sovereignty, the limitations and instability of Europe's colonial projects, Russia's repertoire of exploitation and differentiation, as well as the "empire of liberty"—devised by American revolutionaries and later extended across a continent and beyond. With its investigation into the relationship between diversity and imperial states, Empires in World History offers a fresh approach to understanding the impact of empires on the past and present.

Ad Infinitum

Author : Nicholas Ostler
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 080271840X
Total Pages : 404 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (27 download)

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Book Synopsis Ad Infinitum by : Nicholas Ostler

Download or read book Ad Infinitum written by Nicholas Ostler and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Latin language has been the one constant in the cultural history of the West for more than two millennia. It has been the foundation of our education, and has defined the way in which we express our thoughts, our faith, and our knowledge of how the world functions. Indeed, the language has proved far more enduring than its empire in Rome, its use echoing on in the law codes of half the world, in the terminologies of modern science, and until forty years ago, in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. It is the unseen substance that makes us members of the Western world. In his erudite and entertaining "biography," Nicholas Ostler shows how and why (against the odds, through conquest from within and without) Latin survived and thrived even as its creators and other languages failed. Originally the dialect of Rome and its surrounds, Latin supplanted its neighbors to become, by conquest and settlement, the language of all Italy, and then of Western Europe and North Africa. Its cultural creep toward Greek in the East led it to copy and then ally with it in an unprecedented, but invincible combination: Greek theory and Roman practice, delivered through Latin, became the foundation of Western civilization. Christianity, a latecomer, then joined the alliance, and became vital to Latin's survival when the empire collapsed. Spoken Latin re-emerged as a host of new languages, from Portuguese and Spanish in the west to Romanian in the east. But a knowledge of Latin lived on as the common code of European thought, and inspired the founders of Europe's New World in the Americas. E pluribus unum. Illuminating the extravaganza of its past, Nicholas Ostler makes clear that, in a thousand echoes, Latin lives on, ad infinitum.

Polyglot: How I Learn Languages

Author : Kat— Lomb
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1606437062
Total Pages : 220 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (64 download)

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Book Synopsis Polyglot: How I Learn Languages by : Kat— Lomb

Download or read book Polyglot: How I Learn Languages written by Kat— Lomb and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: KAT LOMB (1909-2003) was one of the great polyglots of the 20th century. A translator and one of the first simultaneous interpreters in the world, Lomb worked in 16 languages for state and business concerns in her native Hungary. She achieved further fame by writing books on languages, interpreting, and polyglots. Polyglot: How I Learn Languages, first published in 1970, is a collection of anecdotes and reflections on language learning. Because Dr. Lomb learned her languages as an adult, after getting a PhD in chemistry, the methods she used will be of particular interest to adult learners who want to master a foreign language.

Empires of the Silk Road

Author : Christopher I. Beckwith
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781400829941
Total Pages : 512 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis Empires of the Silk Road by : Christopher I. Beckwith

Download or read book Empires of the Silk Road written by Christopher I. Beckwith and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-03-16 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first complete history of Central Eurasia from ancient times to the present day, Empires of the Silk Road represents a fundamental rethinking of the origins, history, and significance of this major world region. Christopher Beckwith describes the rise and fall of the great Central Eurasian empires, including those of the Scythians, Attila the Hun, the Turks and Tibetans, and Genghis Khan and the Mongols. In addition, he explains why the heartland of Central Eurasia led the world economically, scientifically, and artistically for many centuries despite invasions by Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Chinese, and others. In retelling the story of the Old World from the perspective of Central Eurasia, Beckwith provides a new understanding of the internal and external dynamics of the Central Eurasian states and shows how their people repeatedly revolutionized Eurasian civilization. Beckwith recounts the Indo-Europeans' migration out of Central Eurasia, their mixture with local peoples, and the resulting development of the Graeco-Roman, Persian, Indian, and Chinese civilizations; he details the basis for the thriving economy of premodern Central Eurasia, the economy's disintegration following the region's partition by the Chinese and Russians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the damaging of Central Eurasian culture by Modernism; and he discusses the significance for world history of the partial reemergence of Central Eurasian nations after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Empires of the Silk Road places Central Eurasia within a world historical framework and demonstrates why the region is central to understanding the history of civilization.

A Little History of the World

Author : E. H. Gombrich
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300213972
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis A Little History of the World by : E. H. Gombrich

Download or read book A Little History of the World written by E. H. Gombrich and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: E. H. Gombrich's Little History of the World, though written in 1935, has become one of the treasures of historical writing since its first publication in English in 2005. The Yale edition alone has now sold over half a million copies, and the book is available worldwide in almost thirty languages. Gombrich was of course the best-known art historian of his time, and his text suggests illustrations on every page. This illustrated edition of the Little History brings together the pellucid humanity of his narrative with the images that may well have been in his mind's eye as he wrote the book. The two hundred illustrations—most of them in full color—are not simple embellishments, though they are beautiful. They emerge from the text, enrich the author's intention, and deepen the pleasure of reading this remarkable work. For this edition the text is reset in a spacious format, flowing around illustrations that range from paintings to line drawings, emblems, motifs, and symbols. The book incorporates freshly drawn maps, a revised preface, and a new index. Blending high-grade design, fine paper, and classic binding, this is both a sumptuous gift book and an enhanced edition of a timeless account of human history.

Languages of the World

Author : Asya Pereltsvaig
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107002788
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Languages of the World by : Asya Pereltsvaig

Download or read book Languages of the World written by Asya Pereltsvaig and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-02-09 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduces readers to the rich diversity of human languages, familiarizing them with the variety of languages around the world.

The Secret Life of Language

Author : Simon Pulleyn
Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN 13 : 9781788400244
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis The Secret Life of Language by : Simon Pulleyn

Download or read book The Secret Life of Language written by Simon Pulleyn and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2018 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at how language has evolved around the globe from ancestral proto-languages to our recognisable modern tongues. It demonstrates how language has been shaped by social and cultural influences, and even explains how our anatomy affects the articulation, and therefore evolution, of words. Discover the surprising stories behind the origin of the written word, the difficulties of decipherment and the challenge of inventing from scratch languages such as Dothraki. Combining expert analysis with accessible narrative and fun illustrations, The Secret Life of Language makes even the complex topics of philology, morphology and phonology easy to understand.