The History of Languages: An Introduction - Couverture rigide

Janson, Tore

 
9780199604289: The History of Languages: An Introduction
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0199604282 ISBN 13 : 9780199604289
Editeur : OUP Oxford, 2012

Synopsis

This is an introduction to the history of languages, from the distant past to a glimpse at what languages may be like in the distant future. It looks at how languages arise, change, and ultimately vanish, and what lies behind their different destinies. What happens to languages, he argues, has to do with what happens to the people who use them, and what happens to people, individually and collectively, is affected by the languages they speak. The book opens by examining what languages the hunter-gatherers might have spoken and the changes to language that took place when agriculture made settled communities possible. It then looks at the effects of the invention of writing, the formation of empires, the spread of religions, and the recent dominance of world powers, and shows how these relate to great changes in the use of languages. Tore Janson discusses the appearance of new languages, the reasons why some languages spread and others die, considers whether similar cyclical processes are found at different times and places, and examines the causes of internal changes in languages and dialects. The book ranges widely among the world's languages and mixes thematic chapters on general processes of change with accounts of specific languages, including Chinese, Arabic, Latin, Greek, and English.

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À propos de l?auteur

Tore Janson was Professor of Oriental and African Languages at the University of Göteborg until his retirement in 2000. He was previously Professor of Latin at the same university and is a world expert on its history. He is the author of the international bestsellers Speak: A Short History of Languages (OUP 2002; paperback 2003) and The Natural History of Latin (OUP 2004, paperback 2005).

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
OUP Oxford
Date d'édition
2012
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0199604282
ISBN 13 
9780199604289
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
304
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
Messaggerie Libri
ufficio.anagrafiche@meli.it

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Assago Milano
Italie

Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780199604296: The History of Languages: An Introduction (Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics)

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  0199604290 ISBN 13 :  9780199604296
Editeur : Oxford University Press, USA, 2011
Couverture souple