The Last Lingua Franca

Sep 30, 2024 5:25 AM

Author:Nicholas Ostler

A revelatory and exhilarating tour de force, Nicholas Ostler's The Last Lingua Franca: The Rise and Fall of World Languages explores the rise of a linguistic diversity we could never before have imagined.

In the twenty-first century, can we really take the dominance of English for granted?

In their time, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit and Persian have each been world languages, sweeping the globe for centuries at a time. And yet they have all been displaced, just as Nicholas Ostler predicts English will be. What forces drive these linguistic currents? What characteristics do lingua francas share? And most importantly, how do they lose their power?

'Frequently jaw-dropping and never less than convincing'

  Henry Hitchings, Financial Times

'Sweepingly learned and engagingly garrulous'

  Sunday Times

'A much-needed challenge to conventional wisdom'

  Guardian

A linguist of astonishing voracity ... the predictions are striking'

  Economist

Nicholas Ostler is the author of Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World and Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin. He studied Greek, Latin and Philosophy at the University of Oxford and holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from MIT. With a working knowledge of twenty-six languages, Nicholas now runs an institute for the protection of endangered languages.

Reviews

Frequently jaw-dropping and never less than convincing

—— Henry Hitchings , Financial Times

A linguist of astonishing voracity ... the predictions are striking

—— Economist

Extensive and engaging...A sweepingly learned and garrulous guide to historical curiosities

—— James McConnachie , Sunday Times

A wide-ranging linguistic perspective.

—— Robert McCrum , The Observer

As Nicholas Ostler exhaustively documents...history shows that no language will dominate the world conversation forever...More provocatively, Ostler argues that, once the dominance of English has waned, no lingua franca will replace it.

—— Jonathon Keats , New Scientist

A thorough analysis of the rise and fall of different lingua francas, Ostler provides us with a series of rich examples showing how these 'common languages' achieve prominence and how they subsequently, and inevitably, lose this, left to shrivel for use only as mother tongues.

—— Colin Fraser , Scotsman

Jean Findlay... has at last given us a full portrait of this admirable man

—— New York Review of Books

Findlay assembles a fascinating man from a strange collection of fragments with style, fittingly enough, and wit

—— Ian Bell , Herald Scotland

Eager, conscientious, affectionate… Endearingly old-fashioned in its family piety, protective partisanship and unembellished decency… A work that murmurs and sidles in a self-effacing tone… A likeable, informative and poignant book that Findlay is uniquely suited to have written

—— Richard Davenport-Hines , Literary Review

There is a tenderness with which [Findlay] cherishes even the most inconsequential events… Fitting tribute

—— Jonathan Beckman , Daily Telegraph

Entertaining

—— Financial Times

Findlay’s welcome biography reveals him to be a fascinating character… Admirably and engagingly fulfils its brief

—— Peter Parker , Oldie

A revealing portrait of an extraordinary man

—— Independent

Findlay ably amplifies her portrait with family history and evocations of the Edwardian literary scene

—— New Yorker

Respectful and sympathetic

—— Lesley McDowell , Independent on Sunday

Compelling

—— Clive Aslet , Country Life

A colourful treatment of a colourful life

—— Lady

Personal and affectionate tribute

—— Sally Morris , Daily Mail

Affectionate, familial tribute to this many-sided man.

—— The Catholic Herald

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