Quotes About Linguistics

Spelling is local, or rather national.

YOU have no room to laugh, that's all. I'm not doing any worse with Boovish than you did with English.' Get off of the car,' J.Lo huffed. 'I am an English superstar.' Uh-uh. There's no comparison. 'Gratuity' in written Boovish has seventeen different bubbles that all have to be the right size and in the right place. 'J.Lo' in written English only has three letters, and you still spelled it 'M-smiley face-pound sign.

I never dream in French, but certain French words seem better or more fun than English words - like 'pois chiches' for chick peas!

I'm absolutely pedantic about language; it must go back to my schools.

I understand English; I read and write English perfectly, but the accent won't go away.

It appears that the present-day form of African American English is not the inheritance of the period of slavery, but the creation of the second half of the 20th century.

I have had periods when I've overused a word, 'candent' being one example, but I'm trying not to do that any more.

I admit I feel funny when I use the word 'whom' as I'm talking to my diapered children, but I persist.

According to an extensive study comparing identical twins to fraternal twins, headed by University of New Mexico's Dr. Philip Dale, only 25% of language acquisition is due to genetic factors.

Note in particular that a noun denoting a group of people takes which, not who. You cannot write *the battalion who had captured the fortress because a battalion, though composed of people, is not itself a person: write the battalion which had captured the fortress.

dissociate, disassociate Both are possible, but dissociate is more usual, and is recommended.

La personalidad debía adaptarse a las nuevas circunstancias lingüísticas para crearse de nuevo

My brothers and sisters and I spoke in a language called Egg Latin. In the early '50s in Canada, this became a fad way of talking among certain people. It's based on the concept that in every syllable before the vowel and after the preceding constant you insert the word 'egg.' So, my name Phil would be 'Pegghil.'

Out of the simple consonants of the alphabet and our eleven vowels and diphthongs all possible syllables of a certain sort were constructed, a vowel sound being placed between two consonants.

I'm a big believer in change and embrace the fact that English is probably the fastest-moving language in the world.

I talk bilingual.

I'm from Boston - everyone says 'awesome,' but there are a lot of people in Boston who say 'awesome.'

Speaking fluent English - like doing long division or successfully rewiring a 220-volt electrical outlet - is not a skill you're born with. It's something you learn, occasionally even by opening some old dictionary.

Every linguistic sign is located on two axes: the axis of simultaneity and that of succession.

From a strictly articulatory point of view there is no succession of sounds.

I don't think there is such a thing as an idea without words, because your language is your thought.

Learning how to rap actually improved my English, because it forced me to talk fast, and I used to suck at that.

Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone of the continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so language is made up of images, or tropes, which now, in their secondary use, have long ceased to remind us of their poetic origin.

Language is fossil poetry