Name: Empires of the Word
ISBN: 9780060935726

Empires of the Word

Nicholas Ostler's Empires of the Word is the first history of the world's great tongues, gloriously celebrating the wonder of words that binds communities together and makes possible both the living of a common history and the telling of it. From the uncanny resilience of Chinese through twenty centuries of invasions to the engaging self-regard of Greek and to the struggles that gave birth to the languages of modern Europe, these epic achievements and more are brilliantly explored, as are the fascinating failures of once "universal" languages. A splendid, authoritative, and remarkable work, it demonstrates how the language history of the world eloquently reveals the real character of our planet's diverse peoples and prepares us for a linguistic future full of surprises.

What Hacker News says

muststopmythsAug 2026

would you recommend a more recent book comparable to "Empires of the Word" by Nicholas Ostler on the subject of languages ? I am really enjoying the book, but it's over 20 years old at this point. I wonder how much of the information is out of date now.

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carderneDec 2024

I enjoyed Empires of the Word, will have a look at the other book you recommend.

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100kApr 2018

The author of this article wrote a very interesting book about the connection between language and empire, "Empires of the Word".

https://www.amazon.com/Empires-Word-Language-History-World/d...

It is really interesting to read about how languages outlast their cultures. Latin comes to mind of course, but as the book discusses this was also the case with Sumerian and others.

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sho_hnOct 2014

Nicholas Ostler's Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World is a journey through human history as seen through a lense of expanding, contracting and competing languages spheres. Well worth a read.

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sho_hnJul 2014

My argument is one in favor of being more flexible than the OP proposes, by introducing the idea that letter case isn't a universal or even frequent trait of similar writing systems, and that you can even call into question its utility.

As for modern Latin (Latin originally didn't have letter case, either; widespread use of letter case is a fairly recent development), most common doesn't mean best - how the "market share" of languages and writing systems evolves is a more complex topic (Nicholas Ostler's Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World is a good book). That means looking at and comparing with other examples is often useful.

It's a little like the reason you want to learn more than one programming language - it trains your ability to think about problems on a more abstract level than a single toolbox allows, and gives you insight into the strengths and weaknesses of each of your tools and how to apply them best. Even if you wind up only programming in a single language anyway. It also tends to make you less dogmatic and more willing to go back to first princples. Or willing to entertain notions like "just because this man isn't capitalizing his letters it doesn't necessarily mean he has nothing to tell me".

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davidwDec 2011

Let's see... in no particular order:

* Thinking, Fast and Slow: http://amzn.to/sXQGSR - probably makes my list because I just finished it, and as he says "what you see is all there is" - we're biased towards things that come to mind easily. Actually, it is a pretty good book even looking through all the others I've read.

* 1491: http://amzn.to/uaR0yf - about the Americas prior to the arrival of "Cristoforo Colombo".

* Built to sell: http://amzn.to/ukmyNP - how to create a business that is something that you can sell because it can exist without you. Not quite so relevant to startups working on a product, but some good concepts nonetheless. A good summary is probably just as good as reading the book, as the core concepts are fairly simple.

* Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World: http://amzn.to/tVvltK the history of the world as seen through languages.

* The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East: http://amzn.to/spQCF7 - a look at how the legal systems of 'the west' and the middle east differed and the results those systems led to.

And of course, if you haven't read this one, I think it's a great read:

Start Small, Stay Small: http://amzn.to/v2DHyx - a great guide full of practical advice on "startups for the rest of us".

What I haven't read:

Lean Startups by Eric Ries. Does it contain much practical advice? I get the impression it's a bit on the 'strategic' side without giving you concrete ideas about how to go about doing things.

The Steve Jobs biography. It looks to be so pervasive and widespread that I'm wondering if I can absorb most of the good parts from other people who have read it. I may get it anyway; we'll see.

FWIW, all links contain a referral code to help fuel my reading habit.

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