Words

This is the fascinating story of a much-travelled family, the languages of Europe. American and Russian, Latvian and Sicilian, Icelandic and Greek, now mutually incomprehensible tongues, all stem from an unwritten language that has long since disappeared. It is the story of war and peace among words, the success of some languages, the failure of others; of ideas exchanged, borrowed, given or simply appropriated; above all, of endless movement that has carried the descendants of that vanished language ot every continent of the world. This text shows how the rough-and-ready Latin of the Roman legionaries spread and developed inot some of the most elegant and widely travelled languages of the world; how its older and more studious neighbour, Greek, stayed at home, yet became a permanent influence upon the most modern of sciences; and how the crude speech of the ancient Germanic tribesmen evolved inot a range of closely related tongues, one of which, English, has become the nearest thing to a world language that has yet appeared. 'Words' also looks at the non-western languages of millions of people in, for example, Asia and the Middle East - among them Iranians, Afghanis, Baluchis, Bengalis, Napalis and Sinhalese - which reveal common antecedents with their European counterparts. There is mention too, of the close neighbours who are not related, of Finnish and Hungarian, whose languages originated among the hunters of the northern Asian forests; and of Basque, a language of northern Spain and southwestern France so old that is has so far baffled all attempts to explain its origins. With well-paced narrative, maps and photographs and over 1,000 ecxpamples of words on the move, 'Words' tells the enthralling story of western languages over the centuries, and looks at the family likenesses of vocabulary and idiom that link, however distantly, the vernaculars of Bolivian and Bulgarian, Romany and Romanian, Texan and Tuscan. There is a separate map section showing at a glance what tongues are spoken where, a useful glossary of technical terms, and a comprehensive index. For anyone who reads, travels, studies a foreign language, or is simply excited by words, this is essential, enlightening and enjoyable reading