About this item
Just how did a dialect spoken by a handful of shepherds in Northern Spain become the world's second most spoken language, the official language of twenty-one countries on two continents, and the unofficial second language of the United States Jean-Benot Nadeau and Julie Barlow, the husband-and-wife team who chronicled the history of the French language in The Story of French, now look at the roots and spread of modern Spanish. Full of surprises and honed in Nadeau and Barlow's trademark style, combining personal anecdote, reflections, and deep research, The Story of Spanish is the first full biography of a language that shaped the world we know, and the only global language with two names -- Spanish and Castilian. The story starts when the ancient Phoenicians set their sights on "The Land of the Rabbits," Spain's original name, which the Romans pronounced as Hispania. The Spanish language would pick up bits of Germanic culture, a lot of Arabic, and even some French on its way to taking modern form just as it was about to colonize a New World. Through characters like Queen Isabella, Christopher Columbus, Cervantes, and Goya, The Story of Spanish shows how Spain's Golden Age, the Mexican Miracle, and the Latin American Boom helped shape the destiny of the language. Other, more somber episodes, also contributed, like the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of Spain's Jews, the destruction of native cultures, the political instability in Latin America, and the dictatorship of Franco. The Story of Spanish shows there is much more to Spanish than tacos, flamenco, and bullfighting. It explains how the United States developed its Hispanic personality from the time of the Spanish conquistadors to Latin American immigration and telenovelas. It also makes clear how fundamentally Spanish many American cultural artifacts and customs actually are, including the dollar sign, barbecues, ranching, and cowboy culture. The authors give us a passionate and intriguing chronicle of a vibrant language that thrived through conquests and setbacks to become the tongue of Pedro Almodvar and Gabriel Garca Mrquez, of tango and ballroom dancing, of millions of Americans and hundreds of millions of people throughout the world.
About the Author
Jean-Benoît Nadeau was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and lives in Montreal. His first book in English is "Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong", which he co-signed with wife and coauthor Julie Barlow. He also published "The Story of French", "The Story of Spanish" and "The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Codes of French Conversation Revealed". Their books have been translated in French, Dutch, Mandarin and Japanese. In French, he authored "Les Français aussi ont un accent", "Pas si fous ces Français", "Le français quelle histoire!", "Les accents circomplexes", "Le Guide du travailleur autonome 3.0" and "Écrire pour vivre."As a journalist, he is a columnist for Montreal daily Le Devoir, a contributor to Canada's leading national magazine L'actualité and an editorialist at Avenues.ca, and has signed op-eds in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star.
