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. . . [QUOTES FOLLOW LINKS] see: ALLITERATION COMMUNICATION CONVERSATION DICTIONARY ELOQUENCE ENGLISH GERMAN GRAMMAR IRONY LATIN ORATORS POLITICAL CORRECTNESS PROVERBS PUNCTUATION SATIRE SEMANTICS SPEECH SPELLING STYLE TALK VOCABULARY WORDS WRITING --- 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 | KARMA - KENTUCKY | KINDNESS | KILL - KU KLUX KLAN | KNOWLEDGE | LABELS - LAS VEGAS | LANGUAGE | LATIN - LAUGHTER | LAW (THE) - LAWYERS | LAZINESS - LEGACY | LEARNING | LEISURE - LIBERALS | LIBERTY - LIBRARY | LIES / LIARS / LYING | LIFE - PAGE 1 (A-L) | LIFE - PAGE 2 (M-Z) | LIFESTYLE - LIMITATIONS | LINCOLN (ABRAHAM) - LITTERING | LIVE - LONDON | LONELINESS - LOUISIANA | LOVE - PAGE 1 (A-L) | LOVE - PAGE 2 (M-Z) | LOVE & MARRIAGE - LYNCHING | | H | I - J | K - L | M | N - O | P - Q | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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