Comments on: An Interview With Linguist Nicholas Ostler

By: Shirley Allen

Shirley Allen — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 01:43:21 +0000

Read this book in two or three days. Am doing research on Alans from Alanus to my Cherokee great-great grandfather, Charles Richard Allen, who came to Illinois form North Carolina on Trail of Tears in 1838. I particularly noted the name Alangard on a map of India close to where Kerala is. Can’t find anything on that. Could I get some more info on Alangard. Is it old name for current town, a monastery, or what? Please help me find out more about this Alangard in India. I know in some languages Alan is Asgard. But that’s just an inside. I’m so curious aboutthis Alangard. Thank you.

By: RobertBoggsSr

RobertBoggsSr — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 21:23:30 +0000

I learned of Nicholas Ostler’s book, “Empires of the Word” when he was interviewed on TV. I bought the book the next week.

As one who is not a scholar in this field, but one who has sat in classes to study four different (foreign) languages, I found the book fascinating. There were sections of little interest to me (native South American languages, for instance), but the overall book was simply fascinating.

Ostler amazes me with his seemingly command of so many different languages. This may be the norm among his peers, but I stand amazed.

I learned the relationships between languages I had wondered about. The fact that Chinese and Egyptian never spread from the people who originally spoke those languages, yet absolved those who entered their space, is interesting. That Arabic spread so quickly is a fact I had not considered before–or, at least had not given much thought. The various ways English spread is another new thought for me. That the Semitic and Akkadic languages have simularities I did not know. The opening Prologue about Cortes and Montezuma gave me the understanding that a language really effects a person’s world outlook.

The book was not “an easy read” for me. But, the effort was worth it.

By: Doris Jolly

Doris Jolly — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:31:07 +0000

I have read the first 35 pages of your history, all agog at such scholarship. I hope to find scraps of languages I have self-studied still ticking, as I read the rest. What a joy! Thank you.

By: Pan Michael

Pan Michael — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:29:51 +0000

There is much in the author’s approach that is commendable, not only academically, but aethetically. His point about taking the ‘long term’ into account as a fact of life (and not a mere intellectual notion) gives refief to the fact that language is a living thing: it matures and evolves. Personally, I think Greek is the essential model that languages should aspire to emulate.

By: Shalom Freedman

Shalom Freedman — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:29:07 +0000

I recognize that this is only a brief interview. However I would have appreciated some relation to the subject of the congeniality of various languages in regard to literary creation in various genres. Are their forms of Literature particularly well – developed in certain major languages and not others? And does this relate to inherent structures of the language, or primarily to historical not necessarily linguistic circumstances.