Anyone interested in language ends up writing about the sociological issues around it. David Crystal More Quotes by David Crystal More Quotes From David Crystal The story of English spelling is the story of thousands of people - some well-known, most totally unknown - who left a permanent linguistic fingerprint on our orthography. David Crystal well-known stories people You don't talk to a linguist without having what you say taken down and used in evidence against you at some point in time. David Crystal down-and used taken Academics don't normally manage to alter people's way of thinking through their strength of argument. David Crystal people way thinking Word books traditionally focus on unusual and quirky items. They tend to ignore the words that provide the skeleton of the language, without which it would fall apart, such as 'and' and 'what,' or words that provide structure to our conversation, such as 'hello. David Crystal skeletons book fall It took three years to put Shakespeare's words together, there were a lot of words to be studied and a lot of words to be sorted out, and it proved to be a major project. David Crystal three together years As I get older and I get a few more years experience I become more like Dad, you know, King Lear. David Crystal dad kings years There is no such thing as an ugly accent, like there's no such thing as an ugly flower. David Crystal accent like ugly flower Enshrined in a language is the whole of a community's history and a large part of its cultural identity. The world is a mosaic of visions. To lose even one piece of this mosaic is a loss for all of us. David Crystal community identity history world There's an old little jingle: 'The chief use of slang is to show that you're one of the gang.' What that means is that every social group has its own linguistic bonding mechanism. If there's a group of lawyers, they have their own slang. If there's a group of doctors, they have their own slang, and so on. David Crystal lawyers group you gang Bilingualism lets you have your cake and eat it. The new language opens the doors to the best jobs in society; the old language allows you to keep your sense of 'who you are.' It preserves your identity. With two languages, you have the best of both worlds. David Crystal best you cake society Everybody wants to say who they are and where they're from. And the easiest and cheapest and most universal way of doing that is through their accent. David Crystal say doing through way The main effect of the Internet on language has been to increase the expressive richness of language, providing the language with a new set of communicative dimensions that haven't existed in the past. David Crystal new internet language past Speaking, writing, and signing are the three ways in which a language lives and breathes. They are the three mediums through which a language is passed on from one generation to the next. David Crystal generation three language writing A community, once it realises that its language is in danger, can get its act together and introduce measures which can genuinely revitalise. You've seen it happen in Australia with several Aboriginal languages. And it's happening in other countries, too. David Crystal you community language together People are very ready to criticize other people's accents. There's no correlation between accents and intelligence or accents and criminality, but people do make judgments. David Crystal make intelligence ready people The Internet has given us 10 or 15 new styles of communication: long messages like blogging, and then short messages like texting and tweeting. I see it all as part of an expanding array of linguistic possibilities. David Crystal new internet communication long Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries eventually reflect popular choices. And the Internet is allowing more people to influence spelling than ever before. David Crystal internet influence choices people I don't have any particular desire to see words making a comeback. They are of their era, after all, and that is their identity - they form part of the linguistic color of a period. David Crystal words comeback color identity Likewise, there is no evidence that texting teaches people to spell badly: rather, research shows that those kids who text frequently are more likely to be the most literate and the best spellers, because you have to know how to manipulate language. David Crystal best you research people What turns teenagers on more than the Internet these days? If you can get a language out there, the youngsters are much more likely to think it's cool. David Crystal cool you internet language
