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The Last Lingua Franca
  • Published: 11 January 2012
  • ISBN: 9781846142161
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $35.00
Categories:

The Last Lingua Franca

English Until the Return of Babel

Formats & editions
EBook
4 Jan 2011
Paperback
11 Jan 2012
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A startling new thesis that predicts the end of English as a global language

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?
In this revelatory and exhilarating tour de force, Ostler explores the rise of a linguistic diversity that we could never before have imagined.
  • Published: 11 January 2012
  • ISBN: 9781846142161
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $35.00
Categories:

Praise for The Last Lingua Franca

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
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