Nicholas Ostler is chairman of the Foundation for Endangered Languages.
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| Prologue : a clash of languages | |
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| Themistocles' carpet | |
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| What it takes to be a world language; or, you never can tell | |
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| The desert blooms : language innovation in the Middle East | |
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| Triumphs of fertility : Egyptian and Chinese | |
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| Charming like a creeper : the cultured career of Sanskrit | |
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| Three thousand years of solipsism : the adventures of Greek | |
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| Contesting Europe : Celt, Roman, German and Slav | |
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| The first death of Latin | |
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| The second death of Latin | |
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| Usurpers of greatness : Spanish in the new world | |
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| In the train of empire : Europe's languages abroad | |
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| Microcosm or distorting mirror? : the career of English | |
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| The current top twenty | |
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| Looking ahead | |
