Rick Renzi Quotes

The Hawaiian language needs to be studied globally as a language of life.

The Internet offers endangered languages a chance to have a public voice in a way that would not have been possible before.

I want to keep talking about my people and my country in my own language.

The Sami, as an indigenous people, as well as the Roma and other groups, have the right to maintain and develop their own language and culture.

Language is so important to the Irish, almost regardless of education.

To rescue from oblivion even a fragment of a language which men have used and which is in danger of being lost -that is to say, one of the elements, whether good or bad, which have shaped and complicated civilization -is to extend the scope of social observation and to serve civilization.

It's haunting to realize that half of the languages of the world are teetering on the brink of extinction.

I do not share the wish to see my language dead and decently buried.

I think people should look at learning about Native American history the same as visiting Washington, D.C., and seeing the monuments there. It's all part of the package.

I grew up speaking both languages, and for me that's really important.

As our language wanes and dies, the golden legends of the far-off centuries fade and pass away. No one sees their influence upon culture; no one sees their educational power.

While a people preserves its language; it preserves the marks of liberty.

What could be more lonely than to be enveloped in silence, to be the last of your people to speak your native tongue, to have no way to pass on the wisdom of the elders, to anticipate the promise of the children. This tragic fate is indeed the plight of someone somewhere roughly every two weeks.

I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.

In my world, history comes down to language and art. No one cares much about what battles were fought, who won them and who lost them - unless there is a painting, a play, a song or a poem that speaks of the event.

People forget that there are villages and communities that are still speaking French all over Canada. I went to a bar and spoke with some French people there, and they were saying: 'I went to English school, but at home it was always French, and that's going to be the way it is for my kids.' It's important for them to keep that language alive.

The knowledge of the ancient languages is mainly a luxury.

It's a really important thing for Aboriginal people to remember how stories are told and the power of stories, and make it an important feature in our world again.

My parents did not want us to lose our culture and our language. And that was a good thing.

I had grandparents who were native Irish speakers, and also, two of the four grandparents were illiterate.

I think it's about the feeling more than a language. And I think that we and every culture in the world has to keep their own language just to bring something else, something different, and show a different vision of the world, actually. And that's why I'm trying to keep my language.

We used to speak Irish - Gaelic Irish - around the dinner table, but over the years, we lost that.

Within a language, you have your roots, your culture, and I think and dream in Bassa. We have 260 languages in Cameroon, but the official ones are French and English.

I am adding another language to the spoken language, and I am trying to restore to the language of speech its old magic, its essential spellbinding power, for its mysterious possibilities have been forgotten.

Absolutely nothing is so important for a nation's culture as its language.