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This is a history of Europe unlike any other: a theory-informed history of its language use. The ´rise´ and ´fall´ of languages are recounted, along with an analysis of why periods of linguistic diversity are followed by hegemony. How did the sociolinguistic past differ from the sociolinguistic present?

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List of Illustrations A Note on Naming Prologue Sociology of Language: An Introduction Linguistic Prehistory The First European Literacies The First Hegemonies Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces. Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period Competing Hegemonies: The High Middle Ages The Birth of the Modern?: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries Conclusions Notes Bibliography

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ROBERT McCOLL MILLAR is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. His books include Language, Nation and Power and Northern and Insular Scots.

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