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---

English is destined to be in the next and succeeding
centuries more generally the language of the world
than Latin was in the last or French is in the present
age.
--John Adams (1735—1826)
First VP and second President of the United States.
In a letter to the President of Congress [5 September 1780].

The day of the jewelled epigram is passed and,
whether one likes it or not, one is moving into
the stern puritanical era of the four-letter word.
--Noël Annan (1916—2000)
English historian and writer.
In the House of Lords [1966]; quoted in
George Greenfield _Scribblers for Bread_ [1989].

One picture is worth ten thousand words.
--Frederick R. Barnard
In "Printers Ink" [10 March 1927].

Slang, n. The grunt of the human hog (Pignoramus
intolerabilis) with an audible memory.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Cynic's Word Book_ [1906]
{Retitled in 1911 as _The Devil's Dictionary_}.

It is curious that some learned dunces, because they can
write nonsense in languages that are dead, should despise
those that talk sense in language that are living; to acquire
a few tongues, says a French writer, is the task of a few
years, but to be eloquent in one, is the labor of a life.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.
_Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, CCXIII [1825 ed.]

The world's most difficult word to translate has
been identified as "ilunga" from the Tshiluba
language spoken in south-east Congo. "Ilunga"
means a person who is ready to forgive any
abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second
time, but never a third time.
--Oliver Conway, BBC News [22 June 2004]

The Spanish also left behind, in their branding
signs and the embossing of saddles, a whole
heraldry of ranching, and in conjunction with
this they established the rodeo. The purpose
of the rodeo was to round up, once a year, all
the cattle that had run free or multiplied on
the open range; to distinguish one man's herd
from another, the yearling calves were branded
with the owner's initials or some chosen emblems
registered with the governor of each province.
While the word "cowboy" is a direct translation
of vaquero, much of the language of ranching,
and the Spanish words for the kind of country
it was done in, have passed over to the
present-day practitioners and, indeed, to most
children brought up in the Southwest: corral,
mesa, arroyo, patio, adobe, mustang, sombrero,
desperado, poncho, alfalfa, bronce. By small
changes or abbreviation, other Spanish words
were naturalized in English: "stampede" for
estampida, "lariat" for (la) reata, "lasso" for lazo,
"chaps" for chaperajos, which protected the wearer
against the desert scrub called "chaparral" (chaparro).
The word "cinch," until fairly recently a common
slang word for something quickly or easily done,
derives from the Spanish word for the saddle girth,
cincha. When it was securely fastened, it was said
to be ''cinched."
--Alistair Cooke [Alfred Cooke] (1908—2004)
British-born American broadcater and journalist.
_America_ [1973]

Language is the apparel in which your thoughts
parade before the public. Never clothe them in
vulgar or shoddy attire.
--George Crane
Quoted in Lloyd Cory _Quote Unquote_ [1977].

She dealt her pretty words like blades,
As glittering they shone,
And every one unbarred a nerve
Or wantoned with a bone.
--Emily Dickinson (1830—1886)
American poet.
"She dealt her pretty words like blades"
In _Further Poems_ [1929].

Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which
force truth upon our memory.
--Denis Diderot (1713—1784)
French writer and philosopher.
Attributed in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 338 [1908 ed.].


^

T.S. Eliot (1888—1965)
American-born poet who won the 1948 Nobel Prize for Literature.

On his way to Stockholm for the Nobel prize ceremony, Eliot
was interviewed by a reporter who asked him for which of
his works the prize had been awarded. Eliot replied that he
believed it was for the entire corpus. 'And when did you
publish that?' asked the reporter.

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

^

Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.

At a meeting of a Parisian literary society Franklin found
himself a bit at sea as flowery compliments in French
were exchanged. He decided it would be safest to clap
only when he saw a lady of his acquaintance applauding.
After the gathering was over, Franklin's little grandson
said, 'But, Grandpapa, you always applauded, and louder
than anyone else, when they praised you.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

^

W. S. Gilbert was standing outside his club one day, when a stranger
approached him saying, 'I beg your pardon, sir, but do you happen
to know a gentleman, a member of this club, with one eye called
Mathew?' Gilbert replied: 'I can't say I do.' Then, after a further
pause, 'What is his other eye called?'
_The Folio Book of Humorous Anecdotes_
Introduced by Edward Leeson [2005], "Sport and Show Business"

Nouns and verbs are almost pure metal;
adjectives are cheaper ore.
--Maria Gilchrist (1893—?)
American author.
Quoted by Leonora Speyer in _The Saturday Review of Literature_ [1946].

^

Knut Hamsun (1859—1952)
Norwegian author, winner of the 1920 Nobel Prize for Literature.

During the winter of 1894—95 Hamsun visited
Paris for the first time. On his return home
someone asked him, "At the beginning,
didn't you have trouble with your French?"
"No," replied Hamsun, "but the French did."

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

The phrase "we (I) (you) simply must —" designates some
thing that need not be done. "That goes without saying" is
a red warning. "Of course" means you had best check it
yourself. These small-change clichés and others like them,
when read correctly, are reliable channel markers.
--Robert Heinlein (1907—1988)
American science-fiction writer.
_Time Enough for Love_ [1973]

In all the grammar schools of England children
leave French and construe in English.
--Ranulf Higden (c. 1280—1364)
English monk and chronicler.
_Polychronicon_ [1340s], in M.J. Cohan and John
Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 211 [2004].
Cohan & Major add:
The change from French as the lingua franca to vernacular
English was rapid. In the 1360s the lord chancellor began
to open Parliament in English, and in 1362 a petition urged
that pleading in the law courts should be in English because
French was too little known.

The chief merit of language is clearness, and we
know that nothing detracts so much from this as
do unfamiliar terms.
--Galen (129—199)
Greek physician, anatomist, and writer on medicine and philosophy.
_On the Natural Faculties_ (A. J. Brock 1916 translation.)

-

Life and language are alike sacred. Homicide and
verbicide—that is, violent treatment of a word
with fatal results to its legitimate meaning,
which is its life — are alike forbidden.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809—1894)
American physician, poet, and essayist.
_The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table_ [1858]


I would never use a long word where a short one would
answer the purpose. I know there are professors in this
country who 'ligate' arteries. Other surgeons only tie
them, and it stops the bleeding just as well.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809—1894)
American physician, poet, and essayist.
In a lecture at Harvard University [6 November 1867].

-

We want to create a sort of linguistic Lourdes,
where evil and misfortune are dispelled by
a dip in the waters of euphemism.
--Robert Hughes (b. 1938)
Australian art critic and author.
_Culture of Complaint: The Fraying of America [1993],
"Lecture 1: Culture And The Broken Polity"

I believe that political correctness can be a form of
linguistic fascism, and it sends shivers down the spine
of my generation who went to war against fascism.
--P.D. [Phyllis Dorothy] James (b. 1920)
English writer of detective stories.
In "Paris Review" [1995].

Accuracy of language is one of the bulwarks of truth.
--Anna Brownell Jameson (1794—1860)
British writer.
_A Commonplace Book of Thoughts, Memories and Fancies_ [1854]

Language is the dress of thought.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
"Cowley," _Lives of English Poets_ [1781]

In my youth ... there were certain words you couldn't say
in front of a girl; now you can say them, but you can't
say 'girl'.
--Tom Lehrer (b. 1928)
American songwriter and satirist.
Quoted in _Washington Post_ [3 January 1982].

-

Henry:
Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter,
Condemned by every syllable she ever uttered.
By law she should be taken out and hung,
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue.

Eliza:
Aaoooww!

Henry imitating her:
Aaoooww!
Heaven's! What a noise!
This is what the British population,
Calls an elementary education.

Pickering:
Oh, Counsel, I think you picked a poor example.

Henry:
Did I?
Hear them down in Soho square,
Dropping "h's" everywhere.
Speaking English anyway they like.
You sir, did you go to school?

Man:
Wadaya tike me for, a fool?

Henry:
No one taught him 'take' instead of 'tike!
Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?
This verbal class distinction, by now,
Should be antique.
If you spoke as she does, sir,
Instead of the way you do,
Why, you might be selling flowers, too!
Hear a Yorkshireman, or worse,
Hear a Cornishman converse,
I'd rather hear a choir singing flat.

[. . . ]

An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him,
The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him.
One common language I'm afraid we'll never get.
Oh, why can't the English learn to set
A good example to people whose English is painful to your ears?
The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears.
There even are places where English completely disappears.
In America, they haven't used it for years!

--Alan Jay Lerner (1918—1986)
American playwright and lyricist.
"Why Can't the English?" from the 1956 play
_My Fair Lady_ (Music by Frederick Loewe)

-

He can compress the most words into the
smallest ideas of any man I ever met.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].
On a fellow lawyer, quoted in Abraham Gross _Lincoln's Own Stories_ [1912].

-

Music is the universal language of mankind.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
_Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea_ [1835]


Deeds are better things than words are,
Actions mightier than boastings.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
_The Song of Hiawatha_ [1855]

-

-

Australia's larrikin culture based on mateship and
booze is fading under the assault of US television
shows.

I met a kid the other day who had never heard of
a schemozzle (brawl, commotion or muddle) ...
another bloke at the pub called me buddy and I
said, 'it's mate.'

--Richard Magoffin (1937—2006)
Australian teacher and historian.
"US television is 'dumbing down' Australia"
in _Mail & Guardian_ (Sydney) [4 July 2005].

-

Language is civilization itself. The Word, even the most
contradictory word, binds us together. Wordlessness
isolates.
--Thomas Mann (1875—1955)
German novelist.
_The Magic Mountain_ [1924], ch. 6, "A Good Soldier"

Many women, particularly young women, have claimed the
right to use the most explicit sex terms, including extremely
vulgar ones, in public as well as private. But it is men, far
more than women, who have been liberated by this change.
For now that women use these terms, men no longer need
to watch their own language in the presence of women.
But is this a gain for women?
--Margaret Mead (1901—1978)
American anthropologist.
Attributed in "Reader's Digest" [1987].

Soundbite and slogan, strapline and headline, at every
turn we meet hyperbole. The soaring inflation of the
English language is more urgently in need of control
than the economic variety.
--Trevor Nunn (b. 1940)
British theatre director.
In "Evening Standard" [3 June 1999].

A study in the Washington Post says that women
have better verbal skills than men. I just want
to say to the authors of that study: Duh.
--Conan O'Brien (b. 1963)
American TV personality.
Quoted in Lee T. Silber _Career Management for the Creative Person_ [1999].

If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
"Politics and the English Language" [April 1946]

-

That woman speaks eighteen languages,
and can't say No in any of them.
--Dorothy Parker (1893—1967)
American critic and humorist.
Quoted in Alexander Woollcott _While Rome Burns_ [1934].


Dorothy Parker was at a party in New York where an American
actor who had appeared in a play in London was speaking at
length about his experiences. His speech was full of Briticisms,
and he kept referring to his 'shedules.' Finally, Miss Parker
interrupted. 'I think you're full of skit,' she said.
From Evan Esar _The Comic Encyclopedia ..._ [1978].

-

How very commonly we hear it remarked that such and
such thoughts are beyond the compass of words. I do
not believe that any thought, properly so called, is out
of the reach of language. ... I have never had a thought
which I could not set down in words.
--Edgar Allan Poe (1809—1849)
American poet and short-story writer.
_Marginalia_ [1844—49]

As the intercourse between this part of Great
Britain and the capital daily increases, both on
account of business and amusement, and must
still go on increasing, gentlemen educated in
Scotland have long been sensible of the
disadvantages under which they labour, from
their imperfect knowledge of the English
tongue, and the impropriety with which they
speak it.
--Regulations of the Select Society [1761]
_Scots Magazine_ V. 23 [1761] p. 389

What is not clear is not French.
--Antoine de Rivarol (1753—1801)
French man of letters.
_Discours sur l'Universalité de la Langue Française_ [1784]

-

One of our defects as a nation is the tendency to use what
have been called 'weasel words'. When a weasel sucks eggs
the meat is sucked out of the egg. If you a 'weasel word'
after another, there is nothing left of the other.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
Speech in St. Louis [31 May 1916].


Every immigrant who comes here should be
required within five years to learn English or
leave the country.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
In an article in "Kansas City Star" [27 April 1918].

-

Slang is language that takes off its coat,
spits on its hands, and goes to work.
--Carl Sandburg (1878—1967)
American poet.
Quoted in Maurice H. Weseen _The Dictionary of American Slang_ [1934].

Clarity in language depends on clarity in thought.
--Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (1917—2007)
American historian.
Brian Lamb television interview, C-SPAN [10 May 1998].

But those that understood him smiled at one another, and shook
their heads; but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Julius Caesar_, I, ii [1599]

England and America are two countries
separated by the same language.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish dramatist and critic.
Attributed in "Reader's Digest" [November 1942].

Egad, I think the interpreter is the hardest
to be understood of the two!
--Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751—1816)
Anglo-Irish dramatist.
_The Critic_, I, ii [1779]

I am the King of Rome, and above grammar.
--Sigismund (1368—1437)
Holy Roman Emperor 1433—1437.
At the Council of Constance [1414], to
a prelate who objected to his grammar.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain
no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary
sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should
have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary
parts. This requires not that the writer make all his
sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat
his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
--William Strunk Jr. (1869—1946)
American teacher and editor.
_The Elements of Style_, ch. 2 [1918]

^

--Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809—1892)
British poet, poet laureate [1850-92]

Tennyson was entertaining a Russian nobleman
on his house on the Isle of Wight. One morning
the Russian set off on a shooting expedition,
returning later that day with the proud news
that he had shot two peasants. Tennyson
politely corrected his guest's pronunciation:
'You mean two pheasants,' he said. 'No,'
replied the Russian,' 'two peasants. They
were insolent, so I shot them.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

-

[Saigon, late 1964] I am standing at the reception desk when an American
businessman arrives after a long flight from New York. It has taken more
than twenty-four hours. He is tired and jet lagged, and he wants nothing
more than a room, a shower, and a long sleep.

My name is ...," he offers his name in a peremtory tone to the receptionist,
"and you have a reservation for me."

The hotel employee looks down his list in vain. "I am sorry," he says. "We
don't have a reservation for you." The American grows concerned, decent
hotel rooms in Saigon are hard to find. "Yes, you have my reservation, just
look again," he insists and spells out his name. Again, the Vietnamese
receptionist says he is sorry, but there is no reservation. The fatigue of jet
lag begins to slide into open irritation as the American insists that his office
in New York had confirmed the reservation and that is that. The receptionist
begins to dig in and takes a defensive position behind an impassive facial
facade and icy demeanor. I listen as the conversation escalates. "You have
my reservation!" "No, we do not!" "Yes, you do!" "No, we do not!" Finally,
the American gives in and asks plaintively, "Well, what am I going to do? I
need a room."

"Oh, you need a room?" the receptionist replies quickly. "We have a room
available." The American's mounting anger gives way to bafflement mixed
with irritation. "Why are we having this argument? Why didn't you give me
the room in the first place?" "But you didn't ask me for a room," the
receptionist replies with what he considers to be immaculate logic. "You
said we had your reservation. We don't have your reservation. But if you
want a room, you've got a room. Here, fill out this form."

If an epitaph is ever written for the American-Vietnamese effort to work
and prevail together, it might read, "Here lies the result of a tragic
misunderstanding!"

--Garrick Utley (b. 1939)
American TV journalist.
_You Should Have Been Here Yesterday_, ch. 14 [2000]

-

Language is the expression of ideas, and if the people of one country
cannot preserve an identity of ideas they cannot retain an identity of
language.
--Noah Webster (1758—1843)
American lexicographer.
Preface to the 1828 Dictionary.

An unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world
required that the German text of French operas sung by
Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the
clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences.
--Edith Wharton [nèe Jones] (1862—1937)
American novelist.
_The Age of Innocence_, ch. I [1920]

^

James Whistler (1834—1903)
American painter.

Whistler, priding himself on his fluency in French,
insisted on doing the ordering in a fashionable
Paris restaurant. His companion tried to intervene
and was told, 'I am quite capable of ordering a
meal in France without your assistance.' 'Of course
you are,' said his friend placatingly, 'but I just
distinctly heard you order a flight of steps.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

We have really everything in common with America
nowadays, except, of course, language.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.
_The Canterville Ghost_, 2 [1887]

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
--Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889—1951)
Austrian philosopher.
_Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus_ [1922]

Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace
of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a
look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which
announces that an Englishman is about to talk French.
--P.G. [Pelham Grenville] Wodehouse (1881—1975)
English humorist; American citizen from 1955.
_The Luck of the Bodkins_ [1936]

--

A Swiss guy, looking for directions, pulls up at a bus
stop where two Englishmen are waiting.

"Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?" he
says. The two Englishmen just stare at him.

"Excusez-moi, parlez vous Francais?" The two continue
to stare.

"Parlare Italiano?" No response.

"Hablan ustedes Espanol?" Still nothing.

The Swiss guy drives off, extremely disgusted.

The first Englishman turns to the second and says,
"Y'know, maybe we should learn a foreign language...."

"Why?" says the other, "That bloke knew four languages,
and it didn't do him any good."

-----

acrid [AK-rid], adjective:
1. Sharp and harsh, or bitter to the taste or smell; pungent.
2. Caustic in language or tone; bitter.

argot (noun)
Jargon: the special language used
by a particular group of people.

dieresis (noun)
A mark ( ¨ ) placed over the second of two adjacent
vowels to indicate that they are to be pronounced as
separate sounds rather than a diphthong, as in naïve.
Synonyms: umlaut, diaeresis

heterophemy (noun) ['het-ê-rê-fee-mi]
The inadvertent use of one word or
phrase when another is intended.

patois [pat-WAH], noun:
1. A regional version of a language differing
from its standard, literary form.
2. Arural or provincial form of speech.
3. Any jargon or private form of speech.

polyglot (noun)
A person who speaks two or more languages.

shibboleth (noun) ['shi-bê-leth]
A catchword, password, or any test of authenticity. A language
or dialect that distinguishes a group and can be used as a test
of membership.

tittle (noun) ['tit-êl]
1. A small jot, the dot of an [i], cross on a [t], the beard
on [ç], or a diacritic such as the tilde on [ñ];
2. Minute, incredibly tiny, smaller even than an iota-indeed,
an iota (Greek short [i]) is capped by a tittle.)

vernacular (noun) [vêr-'næ-kyê-lêr]
1. The colloquial spoken language as distinguished
from the literary written language.
2. A local regional or professional dialect.


end page





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