Frank Peter’s Reviews > Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World > Status Update
Frank Peter
is on page 174 of 615
Chapter 4 - "Triumphs of Fertility" - is an investigation of the fates of Egyptian and Chinese. How were these languages so durable and resilient in the face of immigration and invasion? And why did Egyptian ultimately succumb to Arabic? In the conclusion Ostler states he even thinks Chinese might perish like Egyptian, as the ties to its ancient emperor system are now cut. (I'm not sure about that one though.)
— May 11, 2019 11:16AM
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Frank’s Previous Updates
Frank Peter
is on page 113 of 615
Chapter 3 - "The Desert Blooms" - is good. Covers the languages of the so-called Near East. (Not excluding Egyptian entirely but the next chapter will focus on that.) Starts of course with Sumerian but focuses mainly on the three Semitic languages that have dominated Western Asia since the days of Sumer: Akkadian, Aramaic, and Arabic. Also discussed at some length are Hebrew, Phoenician/Punic, Turkic, and Persian.
— May 05, 2019 12:37AM
Frank Peter
is on page 30 of 615
Chapter 2 - "What It Takes to Be a World Language" - still an introductory lecture on the 'principles of wine-tasting' while my hands were starting to shake from severe alcohol-deficiency yesterday.
— May 02, 2019 05:50AM
Frank Peter
is on page 17 of 615
Chapter 1 ["Themistocles' Carpet"] was still (after a preface and prologue) selling the idea of 'language history', but I was already sold or I wouldn't have ordered the book. Get going already, I thought.
— May 01, 2019 12:29PM
