Description

About the Author

A scholar with a working knowledge of twenty-six languages, Nicholas Ostler has degrees from Oxford University in Greek, Latin, philosophy, and economics, and a Ph.D. in linguistics from MIT, where he studied under Noam Chomsky. He lives in Bath, England.

Praise for Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World…

“Delicious! Ostler’s book shows how certain lucky languages joined humankind in its spread across the world.”
-John McWhorter

“Enlightening . . . Always challenging, always instructive--at times, even startling or revolutionary.”
-Kirkus Reviews

“[A] wide-ranging history of the world’s languages... [Ostler] brilliantly raises questions and supplies answers or theories.”
-Washington Post

“True scholarship. A marvelous book, learned and instructive.”
-National Review

“What an extraordinary odyssey the author of this superb work embarked upon.”
-Literary Review

“A work of immense erudition.”
-Christian Science Monitor

“Covers more rambunctious territory than any other single volume I’m aware of...A wonderful ear for the project’s poetry.”
-John Leonard, Harper's Magazine

“Revolutionary... Executed with a giddying depth of scholarship, yet the detail is never too thick to swamp the general reader.”
-Boston magazine

“[A] monumental new book... Ostler furnishes many fresh insights, useful historical anecdotes and charming linguistic oddities.”
-Chicago Tribune

“A story of dramatic reversals and puzzling paradoxes. A rich... text with many piercing observations and startling comparisons.”
-Los Angeles Times Book Review