| Acknowledgements | | xiii | |
| List of Maps, Tables and Figures |
| | xv | |
| | xv | |
| | xvii | |
| | xvii | |
| Preface | | xix | |
| Prologue: A Clash of Languages | | 1 | |
| PART I: THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE HISTORY |
| | 5 | |
| | 7 | |
| The language view of human history |
| | 7 | |
| | 9 | |
| Literacy and the beginning of language history |
| | 10 | |
| | 13 | |
| What It Takes to Be a World Language; or, You Never Can Tell |
| | 18 | |
| PART II: LANGUAGES BY LAND |
| | 27 | |
| The Desert Blooms: Language Innovation in the Middle East |
| | 29 | |
| Three sisters who span the history of 4500 years |
| | 35 | |
| The story in brief: Language leapfrog |
| | 38 | |
| Sumerian---the first classical language: Life after death |
| | 49 | |
| First Interlude: Whatever Happened to Elamite? |
| | 56 | |
| Akkadian---world-beating technology: A model of literacy |
| | 58 | |
| Phoenician---commerce without culture: Canaan, and points west |
| | 68 | |
| Aramaic---the desert song: Interlingua of western Asia |
| | 78 | |
| Second Interlude: The Shield of Faith |
| | 86 | |
| Arabic---eloquence and equality: The triumph of 'submission' |
| | 93 | |
| Third Interlude: Turkic and Persian, Outriders of Islam |
| | 105 | |
| A Middle Eastern inheritance: The glamour of the desert nomad |
| | 110 | |
| Triumphs of Fertility: Egyptian and Chinese |
| | 113 | |
| | 117 | |
| | 122 | |
| | 124 | |
| Immigrants from Libya and Kush |
| | 126 | |
| Competition from Aramaic and Greek |
| | 129 | |
| | 132 | |
| | 133 | |
| Language from Huang-he to Yangtze |
| | 134 | |
| | 134 | |
| | 137 | |
| | 140 | |
| | 143 | |
| | 146 | |
| Dealing with foreign devils |
| | 147 | |
| | 149 | |
| Holding fast to a system of writing |
| | 154 | |
| | 158 | |
| | 162 | |
| Coping with invasions: Egyptian undercut |
| | 163 | |
| Coping with invasions: Chinese unsettled |
| | 167 | |
| Charming Like a Creeper: The Cultured Career of Sanskrit |
| | 174 | |
| | 174 | |
| The character of Sanskrit |
| | 180 | |
| | 180 | |
| | 185 | |
| | 190 | |
| | 195 | |
| | 195 | |
| Sanskrit in South-East Asia |
| | 199 | |
| Sanskrit carried by Buddhism: Central and eastern Asia |
| | 207 | |
| | 212 | |
| | 214 | |
| The roots of Sanskrit's charm |
| | 214 | |
| | 218 | |
| | 222 | |
| Three Thousand Years of Solipsism: The Adventures of Greek |
| | 227 | |
| | 229 | |
| | 230 | |
| | 234 | |
| Homes from home: Greek spread through settlement |
| | 239 | |
| Kings of Asia: Greek spread through war |
| | 243 | |
| A Roman welcome: Greek spread through culture |
| | 250 | |
| Mid-life crisis: Attempt at a new beginning |
| | 254 | |
| | 257 | |
| Bactria, Persia, Mesopotamia |
| | 257 | |
| | 259 | |
| | 261 | |
| | 263 | |
| | 265 | |
| Retrospect: The life cycle of a classic |
| | 267 | |
| Contesting Europe: Celt, Roman, German and Slav |
| | 272 | |
| | 273 | |
| The contenders: Greek and Roman views |
| | 276 | |
| | 276 | |
| | 277 | |
| | 278 | |
| | 280 | |
| Run: The impulsive pre-eminence of the Celts |
| | 281 | |
| Traces of Celtic languages |
| | 281 | |
| | 283 | |
| | 284 | |
| | 288 | |
| The Gauls' advances in the historic record |
| | 292 | |
| Consilium: The rationale of Roman imperium |
| | 295 | |
| Mos Maiorum---the Roman way |
| | 295 | |
| | 299 | |
| Latin among the Basques and the Britons |
| | 301 | |
| Einfall: Germanic and Slavic advances |
| | 304 | |
| The Germanic invasions---irresistible and ineffectual |
| | 304 | |
| Slavonic dawn in the Balkans |
| | 309 | |
| Against the odds: The advent of English |
| | 310 | |
| | 315 | |
| PART III: LANGUAGES BY SEA |
| | 323 | |
| The Second Death of Latin |
| | 325 | |
| Usurpers of Greatness: Spanish in the New World |
| | 331 | |
| Portrait of a conquistador |
| | 331 | |
| | 334 | |
| First chinks in the language barrier: Interpreters, bilinguals, grammarians |
| | 341 | |
| Past struggles: How American languages had spread |
| | 348 | |
| | 350 | |
| | 355 | |
| The spreads of Chibcha, Guarani, Mapudungun |
| | 361 | |
| The Church's solution: The lenguas generales |
| | 364 | |
| The state's solution: Hispanizacion |
| | 373 | |
| | 377 | |
| In the Train of Empire: Europe's Languages Abroad |
| | 380 | |
| | 381 | |
| | 385 | |
| | 391 | |
| | 395 | |
| | 403 | |
| | 404 | |
| | 411 | |
| | 416 | |
| The Third Rome, and all the Russias |
| | 421 | |
| | 423 | |
| | 427 | |
| | 432 | |
| | 437 | |
| | 441 | |
| | 444 | |
| Curiously ineffective---German ambitions |
| | 446 | |
| Imperial epilogue: Kominka |
| | 449 | |
| Microcosm or Distorting Mirror? The Career of English |
| | 456 | |
| Endurance test: Seeing off Norman French |
| | 458 | |
| | 460 | |
| Spreading the Anglo-Norman package |
| | 461 | |
| The waning of Norman French |
| | 465 | |
| | 468 | |
| | 474 | |
| | 477 | |
| | 478 | |
| | 480 | |
| | 485 | |
| | 490 | |
| Changing perspective---English in India |
| | 496 | |
| | 496 | |
| Protestantism, profit and progress |
| | 499 | |
| Success, despite the best intentions |
| | 504 | |
| | 505 | |
| | 505 | |
| | 510 | |
| | 516 | |
| PART IV: LANGUAGES TODAY AND TOMORROW |
| | 523 | |
| | 525 | |
| | 534 | |
| | 534 | |
| | 538 | |
| | 541 | |
| Three threads: Freedom, prestige and learnability |
| | 549 | |
| | 549 | |
| | 550 | |
| What makes a language learnable |
| | 552 | |
| | 556 | |
| Notes | | 561 | |
| Bibliography | | 579 | |
| Index | | 591 | |
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