Quotes About Language

The Comanches were originally Shoshones who had come down out of the north speaking a language that, of course, had no word for "pig." When they had encountered this alien species in what was now Texas, they'd had to invent a new term for them. The term was muubi pooro. Different bands of Comanches pronounced it in slightly different ways. The first of those words meant "nose" and the second meant something like a "tool" or a "weapon.

It is written in Lisp, which is the only computer language that is beautiful.

The word, in the end, is the only system of encoding thoughts—the only medium—that is not fungible, that refuses to dissolve in the devouring torrent of electronic media.

Words are really the least effective communicator. They are most open to misinterpretation, most often misunderstood.

Words are the least reliable purveyor of Truth.

Your thoughts are just that—thoughts. Mental constructions. 'Made up' creations of your mind. But your feelings—now they are real. Feelings are the language of the soul. And your soul is your truth.

Every tounge bit had another word to say.

You see how the words work? They betray your mouth and walk away.

He asked the class how many of us were taking computer science, and everybody but me and this one girl who didn't speak English raised their hands.

he had already learnt never to assume that people made love in the same way as they talked

The most accessible field in science, from the point of view of language, is astrophysics. What do you call spots on the sun? Sunspots. Regions of space you fall into and you don't come out of? Black holes. Big red stars? Red giants. So I take my fellow scientists to task. He'll use his word, and if I understand it, I'll say, "Oh, does that mean da-da-da-de-da?

After the 9/11 attacks, when President George W. Bush, in a speech aimed at distinguishing the U.S. from the Muslim fundamentalists, said, Our God is the God who named the stars. The problem is two-thirds of all the stars that have names, have Arabic names. I don't think he knew this. This would confound the point that he was making.

Indeed, the very word "galaxy" derives from the Greek galaxias, "milky.

One thing quarks do have going for them: all their names are simple—something chemists, biologists, and especially geologists seem incapable of achieving when naming their own stuff.

It is possibly worth mentioning at this point that Mr. Young thought that paparazzi was a kind of Italian linoleum.

Number 2 son: I don't hear nothin. What do you hear? Inspector Wang: Double negative and dog.

It was possible to be struck dumb by all sorts of emotions, not only surprise, and as they drove back toward Pittsford, Amina thought that there ought to be a whole set of words to encompass all those different varieties of silence.

No, I didn't go to our language schools. My grandmother taught me Russian." "Evelina Vasileva Putyatova?" "So, you were paying attention. Odd for a man." "I'm a spy. I listen." "And look and file things away. Anyway, my grandmother was a wonderful woman.

The word "personnel" may seem superfluous, but Army regulations prohibit brevity and common sense.

Yet, there is something about a person's eyes. . . they speak their own language, from the heart and soul. They speak love, grief, hate, innocence, and guilt. They speak the truth even as the person is lying.

It's ever so kind of you to take the trouble," she said. She turned to her father. "Dad, this gentleman's mended my iron, and it works beautifully." She used her normal language without thinking anything about it, but each Negro within hearing caught the word "gentleman" and stiffened for a moment in wonder. They certainly were in a foreign country, a long ways from home.

Written words can also sing.

for I had reached a point in my life when I came to view words differently. A closer look at language could reveal the secret of life.

Language, any language, has a dual character: it is both a means of communication and a carrier of culture