Guess I should've known you'd already have read it.
Legolas Send a noteboard - 31/08/2015 01:06:27 PM
View original postI think there were too many errors in the book as well. Although learning all the languages in the book would be difficult (but certainly not impossible, except perhaps with respect to Phoenician given that we don't have enough extant material to fully know it), certainly Ostler could have had specialists quickly fact-check the various chapters.
Heh. Only you would call it "certainly not impossible" to learn all those languages. But yes.
View original postHis assessment of why languages like Egyptian and Chinese don't catch on is pretty accurate. Large, populous and xenophobic nations with extremely complicated writing systems do not create a vehicle for the dissemination of language. While it's amusing to watch all the soccer moms try (largely in vain) to teach their children Chinese, it's clear that Chinese is not going to displace English as a language of global trade, finance or science - ever. Some other language may displace English in the future, but not Chinese - ever.
Agree with this as well - not sure any of the other major world languages is a likely candidate for overtaking English, but certainly not Chinese. Unless maybe in case of the emergence of a widely accepted and used transscription system, creating a second written standard for Chinese (which, from what I hear but obviously you'd know better, is relatively easy as a spoken language, with only the tones creating difficulties). Then again, if you go by spoken languages, "Chinese" isn't even a single language now, and in such a transcribed version Cantonese and the others would become completely separate languages.
Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World, by Nicolas Ostler
- 25/08/2015 07:17:36 PM
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IDK, it seems fairly straightforward to me.
- 27/08/2015 02:57:19 PM
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I see your point - like I said, not quite sure if he succeeds in his purpose
- 27/08/2015 08:43:47 PM
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It's an interesting book but I don't agree with all his points
- 28/08/2015 06:07:46 PM
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Makes sense
- 29/08/2015 03:29:27 PM
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There's a great article about the uselessness of studying Chinese.
- 30/08/2015 03:31:13 PM
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Guess I should've known you'd already have read it.
- 31/08/2015 01:06:27 PM
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I wouldn't call spoken Chinese "easy". "Easier", yes, but not "easy".
- 31/08/2015 03:37:55 PM
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