Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Excellent history of the world's languages

Empires of the Word (2005, bought Jan 22, 2010) is an excellent global history of languages, from Nicholas Ostler, a Balliol alumnus, with a PhD in lingustics and Sanskrit from MIT.

This book is unique (in my reading experience) in its depth, breadth, and rigour of scholarship, and its readability (being free of academic jargon). It is the best book on linguistic history (evolutionary linguistics) that I know of.

 

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