Quotes About Language

That is like deciding that you shouldn't take a Spanish class because you don't already speak the language.

Betty G. Birney

By the time they are 4 years old, children from poor families have heard 32 million fewer words than children with professional parents.

I hate that word boobs. I wish people wouldn't say it, especially girls. It's like calling your own body stupid.

We have already noticed two of Our Rose's most irritating affectations - her trick of calling inanimate objects 'he' or 'she,' and the way in which she says 'we' when she means 'you.' To these must now be added a third - her habit of looking rapturously into space and saying 'I see' this or that when, in fact, there is nothing there for her to see at all.

Words were so puzzling. Present should mean a present just as attack should mean to stick tacks in people.

You ever use that mouth for something besides sassing?

Yes. Some of the children call them See-Pees; some of the adults, too, I'm sorry to say. Nate prefers they be called Napowesipe or Neshnabek, which are their tribal names. I do, too. Shortening their names to See-Pees is as shameful as having our ancestors' beautiful names changed to things like Toby.

Humor's the hardest thing to translate.

Neither rings, bright chains, nor bracelets, perfumes, flowers, nor well-trimmed hair, Grace a man like polished language, th' only jewel he should wear.

Slang is the speech of him who robs the literary garbage carts on their way to the dumps.

Yaz? kendini söyler, söylemedi?ini yok eder. Bir de, ara bir yol olarak, yok ettiklerinin bir bölü?ünü sezdirebilir. Sezdirdikleri "var" de?ildir ama "yok" da de?ildir.

Yaz? yazmak, konu?mak, etmek eylemek, bizleri,bu (yad?rgay?p durmaktan öteye geçemedi?imiz)düzen yoklu?una al??t?rmayacakt?r.

Dil bu karanl???n içinde ya?ayabilirmi? gibi görünen tek ?ey olacak.

Ama sözlerin bir anlam?, bir de?eri vard? hala. Onlar, -sözler, anlamlar?,- kolay kolay ölmüyor.

Gece yava? yava? geliyor, ?niyor. Çukur yerlere dolma?a ba?lad? bile. ... Dil bu karanl???n içinde ya?ayabilirmi? gibi görünen tek ?ey olacak. Hiçbir a??rl???n, hiçbir gerçekli?in kalmad??? bu yerde. Karanl???n gerçekli?e benzer tek yan?, konu?abilmesi olacak.

Bourgeois is a bourgeois word.

Or, said another way, Native Americans, unlike the people of more modern cultures, don't believe talking is the same thing as thinking.

It depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is. If the—if he—if "is" means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement.

Sometimes words just don't get you there... don't let you say all the stuff from deep in your heart, stuff that no dictionary has a name for.

Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry.

When we fail to speak properly, many in our audience will question our education and our knowledgeableness.

He hated words. Words glossed every real thing with brittle artifice and deceit. Words were always lies, always intended to deceive even when they held the truth. . . .

O: 'Are you conscious of your thoughts before language embodies them?