Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World

Language is a touchy issue. Here in Canada, it's the foundation for our "Two Solitudes" of Anglo- and Franco-Canadians. Social mores, politics and education are bound up with the native language of the people engaging in debates. While this may seem like a local and limited problem, Ostler provides a sweeping picture of how language issues have permeated human history. Some have risen only to be swept away by invasions or shifts in population. Others, under the same stresses, have endured and even prospered. Is there a key to understanding why some languages have sustained their use while others fade? With immense scholarship and some fine language of his own, the author attempts to answer this and other questions about the durability of languages. Unlike many books on language, this one doesn't rely on grammatical lineages or word tracing, but on the people's usage. Language, Ostler says, is the foundation of human community. The tie between an identified language and the culture it supports is intimate and enduring. To lose a culture may mean the loss of language - and vice versa. As this book's title shows however, empires have swept through populations without destroying the indigenous culture. Hence, some languages endure because the culture endured. Paying taxes to a new ruler may strip the purse, but not the mind. Foreign soldiers occupying a city are more likely to be forced to learn the local language for things as simple as buying food or asking directions. Stronger forces than armies are required to displace a language. The identity of a people isn't determined by occupation, but by interaction. History has shown that economics can outperform armies in exercising an impact on language. Languages of trade have a long history of crossing boundaries. The Phoenicans, who never formed a nation of their own, were the major traders in the Mediterranean, interacting with many societies. Record-keeping for trade purposes laid the foundation for many subsequent languages. Ostler declares the Phoenicians provided the "primary education" for the remainder of Europe. Yet, no element of their language has persisted into modern times. Aramaic, on the other hand, was the "lingua franca" of Babylon and Persia. It resisted repeated imperial overrunnings until Greek supplanted it, at least among the educated. All these lingering or disrupted language developments show that no matter how dominant a language may seem to the people using it, a new or more powerful force may loom almost unseen before overtaking the established language with a new one. English, often considered the first "global" language, may sustain severe pressure as "global economics" continually shifts its locus of power. In short, there are no simple, nor hard and fast, rules governing language persistence. The only certainty is that language changes and shifts from different causes. Economic forces and social changes derived from modern colonial enterpri

In the fashion of Jorge Luis Borges, I have always dreamed of a book that contained the history of the world in which languages were the main actors. Thanks to Nicholas Ostler, PHD in linguistics from MIT, we now have such a book. Not only was I not disappointed, it exceded even my wildest dreams. It takes great knowledge and audacity to undertake this project, and Ostler has both. This work focuses mainly on languages that have been widely influential. The first part of the book, starting 5,300 years ago, describes the spread of languages by land, from 3,300 BC up to the Middle Ages. The second part is an account of the spread of European languages as they conquered and colonized the world by sea. In the last part of the book, Ostler makes some predictions as to which languages will dominate in the coming century. Instead of trying to summarize the book - which would be impossible in this space - I will highlight some of the more interesting points. 1)Why did Latin or one of its vernacualars not take root in England as it did in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal? After all they were all domains of the Roman Empire. And why did Anglo-Saxon take root in England and nowhere else? Ostler speculates that most of the population died out from the plague leaving a linguistic void for the conquering Anglo-Saxons. However, there is no one determinent that will guarantee a language's staying power: factors include conquest, migration, economic power, and religion. 2)Why did Greek survive long after Greek civilization disappeared? It became a language of learning and prestige during the Roman Empire, and also latter in Constantinople during the Byzantium era. In a sense, it has parallels with Hebrew. Hebrew was not a vernacular from 100 BC until the 20th century, it survived mainly as a liturgical language, a language of learning. 3)In an excellent chapter called "The Triumphs of Fertility," Ostler compares Egyptian and Chinese. Both are rather cumbersome and unwieldy pictographic languages, but this also served as a unifying force in civlilizations with many mutually unintelligible dialects. Chinese and Egyptian civilizations were highly centralized with densely populated heartlands. Hence, their tremendous fertility prevented invading languages from overtaking them for thousands of years. Chinese is still with us today, but Egyptian was finally conquered by Arabic around 700 AD. 4)Sanskrit and Arabic are examples of languages that spread by being bearers of major religions. Arabic spread quickly across the Arabian peninsula and across North Africa through conquest. Arabic did not supplant the dominant languages of what are now Turkey and Iran, but both Turkish and Persian retain many Arabic words. It is a belief of devout Muslims that God's truth will only be revealed in Arabic, thus giving great impetus to its study. Sanskrit, which Ostler affectionately calls the "charming creeper," spread, not by conquest, but more by seductio

This impressive work is a study of language dynamics over five millennia. Ostler deals with the birth, rise and decline of those languages that spread most widely through history, and the factors that played a part, like trade, conquest and culture. Of course the book is also by definition a history of civilization. The narrative begins in Sumeria and ends with English as the most important international language of today. The author rightly observes that the study of language history and historical linguistics will be mutually rewarding. He also attempts to indirectly capture the inward history of languages & the subtle mindsets that characterize individual ones, especially as regards the abandonment of mother tongues for new languages. Part Two: Languages by Land, looks at the Middle & Far East: Sumerian, Akkadian, Phoenician, Aramaic, Arabic, Turkish & Persian, Egyptian & Chinese whilst chapters 5 & 6 considers Sanskrit & Greek respectively. The last two chapters deal with Celtic, Latin, German & Slavic. Part Three: Languages by Sea, explores the spread of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and the remarkable career of English. Part Four deals with the current Top 20 languages and reflects on the meaning and implications of the global survey. The life-spans of languages differ greatly; if one compares Latin with Greek, for instance, Greek continued to thrive under Roman hegemony alongside Latin and eventually supplanted Latin again in the Byzantine Empire. Some significant civilizational languages like Latin and Sanskrit have all but died as spoken tongues, but they gave birth to rich families of related languages, whilst Old Chinese's pictographic script still serves its daughter languages very well. A major change occurred around the 16th century when the European voyages of discovery spread the languages of Europe far and wide to the Americas, Africa and Asia. Launched by trade, these languages became tongues of empire through conquest. In that way Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and English spread around the globe. Dutch gave rise to the vibrant Afrikaans in Southern Africa and lingers on in some form or other in Suriname and on some tiny Caribbean islands but has disappeared from Indonesia. French & Russian are in decline, having lost much prestige and many speakers the last few decades. Ostler differentiates between languages that grew organically (like Chinese) and those that grew by "merger and acquisition". Of the former, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more than a billion people whilst English with around 500 million, is in second place. Hindi (derived from Sanskrit) is third with about 490 million, followed by Spanish in 4th place with 418 million speakers. Of course as a second language, English is of greater global importance than Mandarin. The book is full of fascinating facts and stuff that will appeal to linguists and hobbyists alike. For example: There are an estimated 7000 linguistic communities today, but at

Rebeccasreads highly recommends EMPIRES OF THE WORD as a dense, fascinating, informative & accessible read. At 640 pages with Notes, Bibliography & Index, it will certainly get the world of words talking, in all their various tongues. What were the origins of language, & where & when did they start? Why did Latin die when the Roman Empire collapsed & Greek survive? Outside of the Middle East why is Arabic primarily the language of liturgy? How did Chinese thrive even after millenia of conquests from outsiders? How far from home did Sanskrit roam? What languages did the Spanish conquistadors kill off? How did European languages stay alive despite constant oppression? What is the real career of English? What are the Current Top Twenty languages of the world today, & is their future secured? EMPIRES OF THE WORD is the way I love to learn history, telling the stories of our mother tongues. Sure there are armies marching across the globe bringing with them, besides war & pestilence, commerce, language & interpreters. There are explorers sailing the seven seas making landfall in strange places among stranger peoples, taking home unknown commodities & new words for them. There were also merchants who travelled overland, exchanging goods, customs & translations. All took their languages with them, becoming multi-lingual & creating new ones with which to barter & carry on diplomacy. Just one question: were the Fertile Crescent writers predominantly left-handed, & when & where did we start writing left to right? Outstanding!

This book tells the history of the world through the rise and decline of languages. Nicholas Ostler has confined himself to languages that have been written down and which have spread geographically. They include Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, Chinese, Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and the main European languages. Of the approximately 7,000 language communities in the world today, more than half have fewer than 5,000 speakers, and 1,000 fewer than a dozen: many will be extinct within a generation. At the top of the 20 global languages is Mandarin Chinese, which has 1.052 billion speakers, more than twice as many as the next highest, English, with 508 million. Third is Hindi with 487 million and fourth Spanish, with 417 million. How have these linguistic communities been created? Why have some flourished while others languished? From the author's picture, it is clear that there is no single model. The most important factors in the spread of languages have generally been conquest, migration, economic might and religion. But to succeed, what a language needs above all is prestige, or the ability to attract speakers. Besides looking back to the origins of the written word, Ostler speculates about the future. In 50 years, he argues, Chinese will probably still be the most widely spoken language, while English, at least as a native language, might have stagnated. Ostler's writing is easily readible and he keeps things going with plenty of anecdotes and interesting facts. So I daresay that this is a book that can be savoured by the professional historian and educated layperson alike. Besides, the book is not a difficult read (content: 5 starts; pleasure: 4 to 5). Additionally, as a complement to "Empires of the Word", I would also suggest reading the following works, whose scope is as amazingly global as Ostler's: 1. Agrarian cultures: "Pre-industrial societies" by Patricia Crone; 2. Economy: "The world economy. A millennial perspective" (2001) plus "The world economy: Historical Statistics" (2003) by Angus Maddison (a combined edition of these two volumes is to appear on December 2007); 3. Government: "The History of Government" by S.E. Finer; 4 Ideas: "Ideas, a History from Fire to Freud", by Peter Watson; 5. Religion: "The Phenomenon of Religion: A Thematic Approach" by Moojan Momen; and 6. War: "War in Human Civilization" by Azar Gat.