Belphœbe » The Story of Language http://belphoebe.benjaminbruce.com literary tidbits Sat, 02 Oct 2010 17:04:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 The Story of Language http://belphoebe.benjaminbruce.com/2008/the-story-of-language/ http://belphoebe.benjaminbruce.com/2008/the-story-of-language/#comments Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:51:28 +0000 Mashkioya http://belphoebe.benjaminbruce.com/2008/the-story-of-language/ Historical linguists usually make much of place names, and rightly.  When a given territory changes hands, the spoken language of the former inhabitants may completely give way to that of the newcomers, but the place names normally remain as a perennial monument to the people who first lived there, though they may change to the point where they are practically unrecognizable, like the Celtic or pre-Celtic Eboracum that ultimately became York.

Mario Pei, The Story of Language

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