Quotes About Language

Body language, when you know how to read it, can be more expressive than speech. (Mercy)

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit," she said, hurt

English is not my first, nor even my fifth, language. Did you say 'a vampire friend'?

If you are going to use white man's words to describe yourself, 'avatar' is more accurate than 'walker.

Most English speakers in Europe, I was discovering, had learned to speak British English rather than the American version.

She had no idea who the dagos were. Her racist vocabulary obviously needed work.

SILVERLESS, DE-MAGICKED, AND VOWING NEVER TO PLAY word one-upmanship—or even Scrabble for that matter—with either Adam or Asil (What exactly was a quicquidlibet, anyway?)

If we are to recognize and free ourselves from the influence of the Power Over model, we must hear ourselves — what words we speak and in what manner we speak them. Likewise, we must hear the words spoken to us and the manner in which they are spoken. This awareness can bring us to the realization of how we do or do not dignify, respect, protect, and esteem ourselves and ultimately all life.

Racism didn't magically go away just because we refuse to talk about it. Rather, overt racial language is replaced by covert racial euphemisms that reference the same phenomena-talk of "niggers" and "ghettos" becomes replaced by phrases such as "urban," "welfare mothers," and "street crime." Everyone knows what these terms mean, and if they don't, they quickly figure it out.

Challenging power structures from the inside, working the cracks within the system, however, requires learning to speak multiple languages of power convincingly.

Theory of all types is often presented as being so abstract that it can be appreciated only by a select few. Though often highly satisfying to academics, this definition excludes those who do not speak the language of elites and thus reinforces social relations of domination.

Babies all over the world are what I like to describe as 'citizens of the world.' They can discriminate all the sounds of all languages, no matter what country we're testing and what language we're using.

When babies listen, what they're doing is taking statistics on the language that they hear.

But even in the schoolyard I'd been aware of that silence, that reserve in him, as though he'd been raised by foxes and language was his second language.

You were given the amazing ability to create universes out of twenty six letters and you're going to the mall? Are you nuts?

When Anna went to school, English sounded to her like pebbles dropping into shallow water.

You're going to be something, you and that language you speak on paper.

There's something darn funny about an old librarian with a potty mouth.

I sacrifice everything to the music of the words.

from the word you build the village, but from silence you construct the world.

Punta Rassa," Emma repeated. "That's a pretty name. Does it mean anything?" "It means twelve dollars a cow, and we got a hundred and forty-eight of them. I can't even figure that high.

Ella glanced at him reproachfully, and explained herself. 'Talking to those Prostitutes,' said Ella. . . . Her violent stress upon the first syllable of this word implied a differentiation between a large class of almost venial Titutes, and another branch of the same class, designated as Pros, and beyond the pale.

When the American Spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different; Liberty, sir, was then the primary object.

However, if you use the phrase, "Yes, BUT…", you immediately come off as combative. You come off as if you're arguing with them or you are trying to correct them. This turns the conversation into a power struggle. Instead of an ally, you come off as an adversary obviously trying to take control of the agenda.