The Last Lingua Franca: The Rise And Fall Of World Languages

'SWEEPINGLY LEARNED AND ENGAGINGLY GARRULOUS . . . Sunday Times

'A MUCH-NEEDED CHALLENGE TO CONVENTIONAL WISDOM' Guardian

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.

'A linguist of astonishing voracity . . . the predictions are striking' ECONOMIST

'The Last Lingua Franca beautifully ties together a diverse and ambitious range of themes, which will offer something new to all readers. Its strength lies in the wealth and mixture of historical fact and linguistic insight' Times Literary Supplement

'Formidable . . . there is scarcely a page of this book that does not contain some remarkable gobbet of information' Financial Times