Nicholas Ostler: The Last Lingua Franca. English Until the Return of Babel

Abstract

910 This book builds on profound familiarity with the rise and fall of many languages11 throughout history. Ostler’s goal is to document causal factors that explain how12 dominant international languages have fared, so as to explore whether the current13 supremacy of English will last, or whether, like earlier imperial languages, its time14 will soon be up. Ostler writes for the general reader and has no academic affiliation.15 His erudition is amazing, building on proficiency in 26 languages. He also chairs a16 Foundation for Endangered Languages that produces an informative newsletter and17 organizes annual conferences.18 There is detailed coverage of the interlocking of languages of empire—Greek,19 Latin, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, Chinese and many others—with commerce and a20 variety of major religions. Ostler presents a rich, varied and fascinating narrative of21 a different world from European ideals of state monolingualism. His strengths are as22 a descriptive linguist and historian, but history is not an objective science, and23 Ostler’s value judgements surface throughout the book. My enthusiasm is severely24 curtailed by serious misrepresentation and many factual errors in the analysis of the25 position of English. My review will mainly critique his coverage of English.26 The book is in four parts: a short survey of present-day English worldwide,27 lingua francas in the past, their varied outcomes, and an assessment of the global28 language scene. Dominant languages are classified as lingua francas, which he sees29 as ‘languages of convenience,’ a definition that neglects the power dimension, and30 fits poorly with, for instance, Persian when it was the language in which several31 states and empires were administered for centuries. Coercive military force is32 occasionally mentioned, but there is not a word on the global militarism of the USA33 of the past century.34 Ostler chooses not to sum up the scholarship on the aetiology and varied uses of35 ‘lingua francas’ past and present, preferring a loose term that suggests interactional