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Ad Infinitum, A Biography of Latin
Category: History: Language
Author: Nicholas Ostler
Copyright/published Year: 2007 by Walker & Company
ISBN: 080271515X
Binding: Hardcover
The Latin language has been the one constant in the cultural
history of the West for more than two millennia. It has defined
the way in which we express our thoughts, our faith, and our
knowledge of how the world functions, its use echoing on in the
law codes of half the world, in the terminologies of modern
science, and, until forty years ago, in the liturgy of the
Catholic Church. In his erudite and entertaining "biography,"
Nicholas Ostler shows how and why Latin survived and thrived even
as its creators and other languages failed. Originally the
dialect of Rome and its surrounds, Latin supplanted its neighbors
to become, by conquest and settlement, the language of all Italy,
and then of Western Europe and North Africa. After the empire
collapsed, spoken Latin re-emerged as a host of new languages,
from Portuguese and Spanish in the west to Romanian in the east,
while a knowledge of Latin lived on as the common code of
European thought, and inspired the founders of Europe's New World
in the Americas. E pluribus unum. Illuminating the extravaganza
of its past, Nicholas Ostler makes clear that, in a thousand
echoes, Latin lives on, ad infinitum.
Condition Information
This book is 'remaindered' and may have marks on the cover and/or bottom of pages.
Very good condition.
Condition Description
Minimal shelfwear. Clean and unmarked text. Small remainder dot on page bottom.
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