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.
The Invention of Suspicion Law and Mimesis in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama
The Invention of Suspicion argues that the English justice system underwent changes in the sixteenth century that, because of the system's participatory nature, had a widespread effect and a decisive impact on the development of English Renaissance drama. These changes gradually made evidence evaluation a popular skill: justices of peace and juries were increasingly required to weigh up the probabilities of competing narratives of facts. At precisely the same time, English dramatists were absorbing, from Latin legal rhetoric and from Latin comedy, poetic strategies that enabled them to make their plays more persuasively realistic, more 'probable'.
In this month's magazine, we've got lots of great articles for you 10 read and listen 10. We're looking at the latest film about Princess Oiana: Oiono (no prizes for origi nality there!). We've also got articles on some new trends in photography, working from home, Aesop's fables, the Ig Nobels, dieting, Latin Pop, sugary drinks, global warming, Grand Theft Auto and lots, lots more.
In the 1960s, Latin American literature became known worldwide as never before. Writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, and Mario Vargas Llosa all became part of the general culture of educated readers of English, French, German, and Italian. But few know about the literary tradition from which these writers emerged. Modern Latin American Literature: A Very Short Introduction remedies this situation, providing an overview of Latin American literature from the late eighteenth century to the present.
The History of English Spelling reveals the history of Modern English spelling, tracing its origins and development from Old English up to the present day.Includes a wealth of information and data on English spelling not available anywhere elseFeatures a complementary website with additional material at www.historyofenglishspelling.infoIncludes detailed coverage of the contributions from French, Latin, Greek - and the many other languages - to our current orthographyServes as a companion volume to Geoffrey Hughes's A History of English Words in the same series
