Items related to The Last Lingua Franca
In this provocative and persuasive new book, Nicholas Ostler challenges our assumption that English will continue to dominate as the global lingua franca Drawing on his encyclopaedic knowledge of world languages and their history, Ostler reveals that just as past great languages like Latin and Sanskrit have died out, so Eng
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About the Author:
Nicholas Ostler is the author of Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin and Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World. He is chairman of the Foundation for Endangered Languages (www.ogmios.org), a charity that supports the efforts of small communities worldwide to know and use their languages more. A scholar with a working knowledge of eighteen languages, Ostler lives in Bath, England.
From Publishers Weekly:
The days of English as the all-conquering international language of science, commerce, and hip-hop are numbered, according to this dense philological treatise. Linguist Ostler (Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin) recaps the rise and fall of lingua francas past--from ancient Sanskrit and Latin to French in the 19th century--to glean insights into how such languages spread--by military conquest, trade, and missionary work-- then shrivel when the originating country loses prestige and power. He concludes from this retrospective that English will recede (though not die), and that no new lingua franca will supplant it--sorry, Esperanto speakers!--because translation software will let everyone communicate directly without learning a common language. Ostler uses English's fate mainly as a peg to hang a rather technical comparative study in which pedestrian generalities emerge from a thicket of historical minutiae. The interested layman will find the book readable, but the level of arcane detail about unfamiliar languages ("the characteristic ezafe construction of Persian noun–phrases, which appends all dependents to the head noun with a linking –i-or-e-, is copied in Chagatay Turkic") may put off the casual reader. 10 b&w illus.; 3 maps. (Dec.)
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- PublisherPenguin Books
- Publication date2011
- ISBN 10 1846142164
- ISBN 13 9781846142161
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages330
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. 'SWEEPINGLY LEARNED AND ENGAGINGLY GARRULOUS . . .Sunday Times'A MUCH-NEEDED CHALLENGE TO CONVENTIONAL WISDOM'GuardianIN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, CAN WE REALLY TAKE THE DOMINANCE OF ENGLISH FOR GRANTED?In their time, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit and Persian have each been world languages, sweeping the globe for centuries at a time. And yet they have all been displaced, just as Nicholas Ostler predicts English will be. What forces drive these linguistic currents? What characteristics do lingua francas share? And most importantly, how do they lose their power?In this revelatory and exhilarating tour de force, Ostler explores the rise of a linguistic diversity that we could never before have imagined.'A linguist of astonishing voracity . . . the predictions are striking'ECONOMIST'The Last Lingua Franca beautifully ties together a diverse and ambitious range of themes, which will offer something new to all readers. Its strength lies in the wealth and mixture of historical fact and linguistic insight'Times Literary Supplement'Formidable . . . there is scarcely a page of this book that does not contain some remarkable gobbet of information'Financial Times In the twenty-first century, can we really take the dominance of English for granted? In their time, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit and Persian have each been world languages, sweeping the globe for centuries at a time. This title explores the rise of a linguistic diversity we could never before have imagined. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781846142161
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Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. In the twenty-first century, can we really take the dominance of English for granted? In their time, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit and Persian have each been world languages, sweeping the globe for centuries at a time. This title explores the rise of a linguistic diversity we could never before have imagined. Seller Inventory # B9781846142161
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