History of Language - Exploring How Languages Have Evolved and Defined Us

Equal parts a book about language, geography, and history, History of Language by Patrick Foote uncovers the stories of how languages have traveled the globe and found homes in new places. This ranges from how English got to the USA, French to Canada, Arabic across North Africa, and so on. Each chapter explains one of these cases: where the language first originated from, how it arrived at its new destination, what languages were spoken there originally, what became of those languages, and how the language has changed in its new home. 

List of contents

Introduction

Part 1: Early Migrations

• The Indo-European Language Family
  
  
  
  • The Germanic Branch: English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Icelandic, Afrikaans
  
  
  • The Romance Branch: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian
  
  
  • The Balto-Slavic Branch: Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Latvian, Lithuanian
  
  
  • The Celtic Branch: Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Bretton
  
  
  • The Indo-Iranian Branch: Hindi, Persian, Sanskrit, Bengali
  
  
  
  
  
• The Uralic Language Family
  
  
  
  • The Ugric Branch: Hungarian
  
  
  • The Baltic-Finnic Branch: Finnish, Estonian
  
  
  • The Sami Branch: Northern Sami, Southern Sami, Ter Sami
  
  
  
  
  
• The Turkic Language Family
  
  
  
  • The Oghuz Branch: Turkish, Turkmen, Azerbaijani
  
  
  • The Karluk Branch: Uzbek
  
  
  • The Kipchak Branch: Kazakh
  
  
  
  
  Part 2: The Age of Colonisation 
  
  
  
  
  • The Atlantic-Congo Language Family
    
    
    
    • The Bantu Branch: Swahili, Zulu, Kirundi
    
    
    • The Volta-Niger Branch: Yoruba, Igbo
    
    
    • The Savannas Branch: Miyobe, Gur, Kulango
    
    
    
    
    
  • The Afroasiatic Language Family
    
    
    
    • The Semitic Branch: Arabic, Hebrew, Maltese
    
    
    • The Berber Branch: Tuareg, Tashlhiyt, Shawiya, Kabyle
    
    
    • The Cushitic Branch:  Somali, Oromo, Beja
    
    
    • The Egyptian Branch: Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian, Coptic
    
    
    
    
    
  • The Sino-Tibetan Language Family
    
    
    
    • The Sinitic Branch: Mandarin, Jin/Cantonese, Wu, Yue
    
    
    • The Tibetic Branch: Standard Tibetan, Khams Tibetan, Amdolese
    
    
    • The Burmish Branch: Burmese, Achang, Zaiwa
    
    
    
    
    
  • The Japonic Language Family
    
    
    
    • The Japanese Branch: Japanese
    
    
    • The Ryukyuan Branch: Okinawan, Miyako, Kikai
    
    
    
    
    Part 3: New Imperialism and Beyond
    
    
    
    
    • The Koreanic Language Family
      
      
      
      • The Korean Branch: Korean
      
      
      • The Jeju Branch: Jeju
      
      
      
      
      
    • The Algic Language Family
      
      
      
      • The Algonquian Branch: Cree, Ojibwa, Arapaho, Cheyenne
      
      
      • The Yurok Branch: Yurok
      
      
      • The Wiyot Branch: Wiyot
      
      
      
      
      
    • The Iroquoian Language Family
      
      
      
      • The Northern Iroquoian Branch: Mohawk, Seneca, Huronian
      
      
      • The Southern Iroquoian Branch: Cherokee
      
      
      
      
      
    • The Uto-Aztecan Language Family
      
      
      
      • The Nahuan Branch: Nahuatl, Pipil
      
      
      • The Numic Branch: Comanche, Timbisha, Shoshoni
      
      
      • The Piman Branch: O’odham, Tepecano
      
      
      
      
      
    • The Arawak Language Family
      
      
      
      • The Northern Branch: Taíno, Garifuna, Arawak, Piapoco
      
      
      • The Southern Branch: Ashaninca, Machiguenga, Iñapari
      
      
      
      
      
    • The Quechuan Language Family
      
      
      
      • The Quechuan I Branch: Ancash, Huánuco, Yaru
      
      
      • The Quechuan II Branch: Cuzco, Cajamarca-Cañaris, Kichwa
      
      
      
      
      
    • The Austroasiatic Language Family
      
      
      
      • The Vietic Branch: Vietnamese, Arem, Phong
      
      
      • The Khmer Branch: Khmer
      
      
      • The Munda Branch: Santali, Mundari, Ho
      
      
      
      
      
    • The Austronesian Language Family
      
      
      
      • The Malayo-Polynesian Branch: Māori, Tongan, Hawaiian, Fijian, Malagasy
      
      
      • The Philippine Branch: Tagalog/Filipino
      
      
      • The Malayic Branch: Malay, Indonesian
      
      
      
      
      
    • The Pama-Nyungan Language Family
      
      
      
      • The Paman Branch: Umpila, Koko-Bera
      
      
      • The Nyungan Branch: Noongar, Galaagu
      
      
      
      
      
      

      About the author

      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      Patrick Foote was born in London but has since moved to Plymouth in the southwest of England. Patrick always enjoyed learning and has always had a particular interest in language and linguistics. This all resulted in the creation of his popular YouTube channel Name Explain, which started life focusing on uncovering the origins of names but now covers anything and everything language. Name Explain has been a huge success, becoming one of the most popular etymology and language channels on YouTube. When not making YouTube videos or wiring books he enjoys reading, playing board/video games, watching pro wrestling, walking, and wild swimming.
      
      
      

Product details

• Authors: Patrick Foote
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 12.08.2025
• EAN: 9781684818150
• ISBN: 978-1-68481-815-0
• No. of pages: 256
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 228 mm x 12 mm
• Illustrations: BW Maps
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Sociolinguistics, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Etymology, Sociolinguistics, Phonetics, phonology, Historical & comparative linguistics, Historical and comparative linguistics