Chríost D. Language and the City

Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. — 243 p. — ISBN: 978–0–230–01878–5The impact of the city on language is varied; it is often far-reaching and is, occasionally, revolutionary. One example of the impact of urbanisation on language is the relationship between the appearance of the first cities in the world and the independent innovation of writing in a number of different parts of the globe – Mesoamerica, Ancient Egypt, Sumeria and China. Then, in the European context for the first time, the evolution of writing, literature, philosophy and the full range of language-centred activity associated with the rise of the city-state in Ancient and Classical Greece.