I'm just finishing reading a mighty interesting book, "Empires of the Word" by Nicholas Ostler. It is an account of the career of the so called "imperial languages", the largest and major languages of today and how that came to be.
He alsos describes some circumstances under which a language can grow, expand and gain speakers (and gives several historical examples).
It's a very good book and it actually gave me many insights about the role and growth of languages, some of wich we today call "hegemonic".
Does anyone here knows this book or has read it? It has lots of usefull topics on wich we could start as many debates.
He alsos describes some circumstances under which a language can grow, expand and gain speakers (and gives several historical examples).
It's a very good book and it actually gave me many insights about the role and growth of languages, some of wich we today call "hegemonic".
Does anyone here knows this book or has read it? It has lots of usefull topics on wich we could start as many debates.