Quotes About Language

By the use of the language of sorrow I had for the time being obliterated my sorrow—so powerful is the charm of words, which for us reduces to manageable entities all the passions that would otherwise madden and destroy us.

It is not well to spend one's symbols improvidently.

Seawrack is singing in the place that lies beyond this place. Listen there, and you cannot help but hear her." With her I sang a few more words in the language of those whom Mora had once called the People of That Town. "'In our small house with shining windows, I waited till the tide brought your wreck through. Lie here beside me in the darkness. I'll wake to life the corpse I say is

Mediante el empleo del lenguaje del dolor, por el momento lo había eliminado.... tan poderoso es el encantamiento de las palabras, que reduce a entidades manejables todas las pasiones que de otro modo nos enloquecerían y nos destruirían (La sombra del Torturador - Gene Wolfe)

He might as well have been talking English, for all Mae understood him.

But for to telle yow al hir beautee, It lyth nat in my tonge, n'yn my konnyng; I dar nat undertake so heigh a thyng. Myn Englissh eek is insufficient. It moste been a rethor excellent That koude his colours longynge for that art, If he sholde hire discryven every part. I am noon swich, I moot speke as I kan.

Youre tale anoyeth al this compaignye. Swich talkyng is nat worth a boterflye

Ye knowe eek, that in forme of speche is chaunge With-inne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho That hadden prys, now wonder nyce and straunge Us thinketh hem; and yet they spake hem so, And spedde as wel in love as men now do.

A well-trained diplomat is supposed to write French, for example, like an angel, but to speak it with the peculiar gutlessness of a Geneva nancy-boy.

Human vocabulary size may have evolved through the same sexual selection process that favored enormous song repertoires in some bird species. But whereas only male birds sing, both men and women use large vocabularies during courtship, because courtship and choice are mutual, and because unusual words work as reliable displays only if their meanings are understood.

Through memory and language, we can transform a pure fitness cost in the past (such as a physical wound or a social rejection) into a reliable fitness indicator in the present (a story about our ability to heal without disability, or to overcome depression).

Language lets us learn about potential mates much more efficiently and interactively than any other species can.

With the evolution of eyes came the possibility of visual ornaments. With the evolution of bird ears came the possibility of the bird song. And perhaps, with the evolution of language comprehension abilities in our ancestors, came the possibility of sexual selection for much more complicated thoughts and feelings expressed through language.

Unusually among European languages, English has distinct words for 'story' and 'history' rather than the same word for both: 'Was für eine Geschichte!' means 'What a story!' rather than 'an excellent history book', and une histoire can be tittle-tattle in the street as well as a work of historical scholarship. For Winston Churchill, there was never any distinction.

Ist das Nein am Ja oder das Ja am Nein schuld?

we ought to think with the learned, and speak with the vulgar .

T]he communicating of ideas marked by words is not the chief and only end of language, as is commonly supposed.

England and America are two countries separated by the same language.

She had lost the art of conversation, but not, unfortunately, the power of speech.

In literature the ambition of the novice is to acquire the literary language; the struggle of the adept is to get rid of it.

German and Spanish are accessible to foreigners: English is not accessible even to Englishmen.

HOSTESS. Oh, nonsense! She speaks English perfectly. NEPOMMUCK. Too perfectly. Can you shew me any English woman who speaks English as it should be spoken? Only foreigners who have been taught to speak it speak it well.

Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespear and Milton and The Bible; and don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon.

The word morality, if we met it in the Bible, would surprise us as much as the word telephone or motor car.