Quotes About Language

To tylko kwestia s?ów. Nawet m?dro?? mo?na nazwa? g?upot?, a g?upot? m?dro?ci?.

English is so hierarchical. In Cree, we don't have animate-inanimate comparisons between things. Animals have souls that are equal to ours. Rocks have souls, trees have souls. Trees are 'who,' not 'what.

I mean, if Native languages have no gender, then why should we? And why, for that matter, should God?

So although in one language, humankind is forbidden to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, in the other it is not only permitted, it is encouraged. That is precisely what that goddamn tree is there for, for humankind to suck from its fruit, and suck and suck and suck and suck, thirty times a day if necessary.

I mean, if Native languages have no gender, then why should we?

All native languages are in danger of dying in Canada. We must each do our part in any way we can to preserve these languages. Cree is my native tongue, the first language I spoke when I came into this earth, so I feel it's my responsibility to do whatever I can to help preserve it.

Language preservation is like saving the birds. We don't want birds to go extinct. Imagine Canada without the sound of a loon. It's a classic Canadian sound. Canada would lose part of its soul if loons went extinct. It's the same thing with languages. Native languages, in this country, or in any country, are part of its sonic environment. It's part of our connection with the earth. We must each do our part in any way we can to preserve these languages.

The most explicit distinguishing feature between the North American Indian languages and the European languages is that in Indian, there is no gender. In Cree, Ojibway, etc., unlike English, French, German, etc., the male-female-neuter hierarchy is entirely absent. So that by this system of thought, the central hero figure from our mythology - theology, if you will - is theoretically neither exclusively male nor exclusively female, or is both simultaneously.

Wars start when two parties haven't taken the time to learn each other's tongues.

Words are to be taken seriously. I try to take seriously acts of language. Words set things in motion. I've seen them doing it. Words set up atmospheres, electrical fields, charges. I've felt them doing it. Words conjure. I try not to be careless about what I utter, write, sing. I'm careful about what I give voice to.

Words are to be taken seriously. I try to take seriously acts of language. Words set things in motion.

Bless her heart's Southern for 'that bitch,' which Meryl was too polite to say out loud.)

Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names.

Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.

The pen is mightier than the sword" only if the brain behind it knows how to wield the word!' Tony Buzan

Poetry's the speech of kings. You're one of those Shakespeare gives the comic bits to: prose! All poetry (even Cockney Keats?) you see 's been dubbed by [Us] into RP, Received Pronunciation, please believe [Us] your speech is in the hands of the Receivers.

Articulation is the tongue-tied's fighting

this further example of Irma Onesalt in the role of busybody, to use the belagana term for it. His mother would have called her, in Navajo, a "one who tells sheep which weed to eat.

Did he expect to be in a hurry coming down? Maybe, Leaphorn thought. Maybe that was it. Time. But Navajos didn't hurry. In fact, there was no word in the Navajo language for time.

You speak differently to your four-year-old daughter than you do to the bank manager.

I write plays and movies, I live and work at the borderline between word and image just as any cartoonist or illustrator does. I'm not a pure writer. I use words as the score for kinetic imagistic representations.

What used to be called liberal is now called radical, what used to be called radical is now called insane, what used to be called reactionary is now called moderate, and what used to be called insane is now called solid conservative thinking.

Truthful hyperbole' is a contradiction in terms. It's a way of saying, 'It's a lie, but who cares?' 

Language is a piss poor attempt at telepathy is what it is. We try to put our thoughts into each other's heads through language...But half the intended meaning gets lost in the transmission, and the other half is filtered through existing assumptions. Everything is a half truth! That's the whole problem! You can't understand me through the smog of your presumptions and prejudices. Multiply that six billion times and you'll begin to understand the desperation of our global situation