Quotes About Language

The Sicilian language is the only one in Europe that has no future tense. The island's bitter legacy of conquest and revolt seems to have stunted its inhabitants' ability to conceive of a time outside this recurrent cycle. At

Translation is the other side of a tapestry.

Bisognerebbe entrare nell'inesprimibile senza sentire la necessità di esprimerlo...

Francois I had commanded that the French speak one tongue, and the Langue d'oil triumphed over the Langue d'oc.

Cordelia was thinking how human beings can invent words, how they can line up their invented words side by side on paper. It was magic.

Of course, she had to put up with being insulted by the cats at times, but she insulted them back just as loudly and in the same language.

Hayvanlar?n kurumlara al?nmad???n? söylediÄŸini san?yordum. K?rk tane polis köpeÄŸi herhalde kesinlikle hayvand?r öyle deÄŸil mi?" "Polis köpekler asl?nda düzgün konuÅŸan hayvanlar deÄŸildir. Polis köpekleri, hayvan zihniyetinden yoksun sapk?n hayvanlard?r. Polisler insan m? ki polis köpekleri hayvan olsun?

The trees are God's great alphabet: With them He writes in shining green Across the world His thoughts serene.

The word, 'cube', comes directly from the Arabic, Kaaba.

Then there was the issue of what the child would call us. ... I was told that no matter what I decreed, the baby would call me whatever she called me. I thought that was nonsense.

I am overwhelmed sometimes and feel a great deal of wonder at words, just simple words and how deeply we can touch each other with them, though I know that most of the time language is the most abused of all human abilities or traits.

Linguistic diversity is integral to the cultural diversity that ensures some humans will survive in the event of one of the periodic global catastrophes. Local indigenous languages hold the keys to to survival because they contain the nouns, the names of the plants, insects, birds and mammals important locally to human survival.

Tolkienist (n.) Someone who studies the works of J. R. R. Tolkien.

"Writing" is the Latin of our times. The modern language of the people is video and sound.

Always, in epochs when the languages and dialects of a culture have become outstripped by development of a practical sort, these languages become repetitive, formalised -- and ridiculous. Phrases, words, associations of sentences spin themselves out automatically, but have no effect: they have lost their power, their energy.

I don't know why I still find it so hard to accept that words are faulty and by their very nature inaccurate.

But one may acquire what MacIntyre calls a "second first language," a language which is learned in the same way that a child learns to use the native tongue. A missionary or an anthropologist who really hopes to understand and enter into the adopted culture will not do so by trying to learn the language in the way a tourist uses a phrasebook and a dictionary.

I like Shakespeare, but I never know what the hell is going on.

In a way fighting like this was just like using magic. You said the words, and they altered the universe. By merely speaking you could create damage and pain, cause tears to fall, drive people away, make yourself feel better, make your life worse.

If there's a single lesson that life teaches us, it's that wishing doesn't make it so. Words and thoughts don't change anything. Language and reality are kept strictly apart—reality is tough, unyielding stuff, and it doesn't care what you think or feel or say about it. Or it shouldn't. You deal with it, and you get on with your life.

And totaly ordinary speaking horses.

Highlight: In a way fighting like this was just like using magic. You said the words, and they altered the universe. By merely speaking you could create damage and pain, cause tears to fall, drive people away, make yourself feel better, make your life worse.

Language and reality are kept strictly apart—reality is tough, unyielding stuff, and it doesn't care what you think or feel or say about it. Or it shouldn't.

The separation of word and thing is the essential fact on which our adult lives are founded.