Quotes About Language

I had forgotten how different my language looks on paper, that its letters have so little resemblance to how they actually sound. Words, most I had not spoken for years, generously gave themselves to me. Fluency, after all, is relative. On that sheet of paper, on another side of the globe, I am fluent.

My self-righteous rage burns until I am forced to concede that I, in fact, have told them nothing. This language that I dip into like a dry inkwell has failed me.

The 'I' [Je] who writes is alien to her own writing at every word because this 'I' uses a language that is alien to her; this 'I' [Je] experiences what is alien to her since this 'I' [Je] cannot be un ecrivain. J/e poses the ideological and historical question of feminine subjects.

L'hétérosexualité allait tellement de soi qu'elle n'avait pas de nom [par le passé]. C'est la norme sociale. C'est le contrat social. C'est un régime politique.

Elas dizem que aprenderam a contar com a própria força. Dizem que sabem o que significa estarem juntas. Dizem que aquelas que reivindicam uma nova língua primeiro se deparam com a violência. Dizem que aquelas que querem transformar o mundo primeiro se apoderam de fuzis. Dizem que começam do zero. Dizem que um novo mundo está surgindo.

What orators lack in depth, they make up to you in length.

When they tote up our contribution," Luke once said, "all that can be claimed for us is that we took 'fuck' out of the oral tradition and wrote it plain.

I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.

Ninety percent of our earliest examples of Latin classical writings are Carolingian copies.

y el dinero. Lo conocía a fondo: el ritmo sin descanso, el olor, el sabor a sangre amarga, el acecho furtivo, el lenguaje que se hablaba en el mercado.

Everything I say is actual, not factual

Good art provides people with a vocabulary about things they can't articulate.

T]he 'subject-in-process' [is] a term I use heuristically to capture the idea that subjectivity is constituted (by language, discourse, or power), inessential and thus perpetually open to transformation.

Did you know that wallet in runyankole is called pocket money

Kelimelerin kemiklerini örtecek toprak yoktur.

I thought: pity the poor in spirit who know neither the enchantment nor the beauty of language.

A philosopher is a man in the street who speaks the same street language. He has to speak from personal experience and try to make simple spirits understand his way of life.

A single letter is useless by itself. But a single word can produce several sentences and stir up endless discourses about its definition.

Beautiful names don't need a meaning to back them up.

Different languages and cultures have added more confusions to the understanding of these holy scriptures.

English has become the language of business, hence its popularity. I guess the French have nothing to offer, instead they exploit their friends on a daily basis.

Every nation or dialect has its version of God.

Learning French is a waste of time in our generation. But it's still beautiful if you want to explore different cultures.

Only money can speak a universal language that cannot be misinterpreted by anyone in our generation.