Ad Infinitum

What Hacker News says

1. throw0101aSep 2021
   > I self admittedly an extremely amateur history buff but my impression was that Greece had completely declined by 200 ce when they are claiming this papyrus originated from.

   Koine Greek was the lingua franca of the Mediterranean. In the Middle East during that time Aramaic (the language that Jesus spoke) was the lingua franca, as was Persian further east. See The Last Lingua Franca by Nicholas Ostler for a history:

   * https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/dec/04/last-lingua-fr...

   A language can survive the waning of the culture that it was associated with. For another example, see Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin, also by Ostler:

   * https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/dec/08/featuresreview...

   Show morethread
2. throw0101aSep 2021
   See also Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin by Nicholas Ostler:

   > The history of language is the history of politics, society and religion - and in the case of Latin it is a story of incredible staying power, the tongue sturdily outliving the Roman empire. As Nicholas Ostler points out, by the end of the first millennium AD Latin was the language of religion from Iceland to Sicily, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, from Poland to Portugal; and 500 years later it was still the language of organised life throughout western Europe.

   * https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/dec/08/featuresreview...

   Show morethread
3. sramsayNov 2019
   Gardini's book sounds like fun, but I want to put in a plug for an older one that might be of more interest to this crowd: Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin and the World It Created by Nicholas Ostler.

   This is a general-reader history of the Latin language that goes from its origin up until its use in the present day (too bad the book was written before the current obsession with the phrase "quid pro quo" in the US!).

   Anyway, it really is a riveting tale, and it makes Gardini's argument for him: Latin really was the "language of the West" for the better part of 1500 years, and its ghost lingers on.

   Show morethread