Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin

In this book, Nicholas Ostler, also author of _Empires of the Word_, traces the history of the Latin language from its origins in a melange of dead Italic languages and Greek influences through its heyday as language of Empire and Church and its decline and ghettoization in an ivory prison.

Though biased as a Hellenistic historian, I found the earlier chapters of the book on ancient Latin and its relationship to Greek language and culture to be the strongest. In these chapters, Ostler dazzles the reader with pages and pages of loan words, but organized in such a way so as not to become tedious or pedantic. His style throughout has this quality: you never feel lectured at, even when his discussion ranges to the driest of topics. These early chapters also chronicle the development of the idea of grammar itself, a fascinating subject.

The other strongest part of the book is actually his chapter on Latin America and the bringing of Latin to the New World through Spanish and Portugese universities. The training of local, indigenous priests and educated laymen was at a very high level very soon after the conquest of the Aztecs and Incas, and anecdotal accounts point to a level of linguistic knowledge among these American students that even surpassed that of the clerics back in the Old World.

This book is not just a book on history or culture or linguistics, but a very intelligent and thought-provoking synthesis of all three (and some other things besides). How the Latin language became what it was at various points in history, who used it and how and why, and the dynamic relationship between the speaker and the language he speaks all inform Ostler's analysis. Highly recommended for anyone interested in any of these fields.

the story wanders around a bit. As a "biography" of Latin, there is a general plot; but it's easily lost in the many details.

It seems to me that a little more focus on the main direction of events would have allowed inclusion of all these details without such a sense of losing the forest. It's really a matter of writing style.

I enjoyed this book. It details everything you wanted to know about Latin from its origins to the present. No knowledge of Latin necessary.

I stopped reading in the first chapter when their seemed to be some text missing. Not pages missing precisely, it just seemed to jump into the middle of something, towards the bottom of the second page of the first chapter. Does anyone know where to find the missing text? I tried the publisher's website, no errata. I hate reading something with missing pages or text.

This work is truly a soup-to-nuts tour of the language of the Romans. It is overflowing with linguistics and history. Ostler gives the reader an erudite review of Latin. Magister dixit.