Cory Michael Smith Quotes

At any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects.

I am now completing research supported by NSF and NEH that is mapping changes in the English language through all of North America, for both mainstream and minority communities.

Well, I like how people talk. I like language. You know, Linda Richman spoke in Yiddish.

I would love to play a British character one day. My accent wavers between Scottish and Irish very easily, though.

The British have slang words, as we do, but it was fun.

That's so different in Hong Kong when I'm using my own mother language, I can treat the line in one thousand different ways, with many different reactions.

The way I think or sing about something is very different if it is in Spanish or English.

I love accents in general. I'm obsessed with dialects, and I had to write a whole movie about it called 'In a World...'

I like playing with languages and dialects as we have so many in India. Adding a dialect just makes the dialogues more colorful.

I speak Hindi with a Punjabi accent, not a Haryanvi accent.

Culture is the intersection of people and life itself. It's how we deal with life, love, death, birth, disappointment... all of that is expressed in culture.

I have a funny accent in every language.

Language is a social art.

I'm about as monolingual as you come, but nevertheless, I have a variety of different languages at my command, different styles, different ways of talking, which do involve different parameter settings.

The places I come from have such rich languages, such a variety of expression. In Sierra Leone we have about fifteen languages and three dialects. I grew up speaking about seven of them.

My mom used to call me a parrot, because the way I spoke would change in every country we'd go to.

Well, American dialects have been studied for a hundred years or so.

My dad knows every single accent from being an old Yiddish grandpa to being Indian or Jamaican. It was very cool to grow up with that.

All language is a popularity contest.

Well, I'm trilingual myself. I am, I know how to speak Spanish, English, obviously, and I speak pretty good Ebonics.

I love accents. It's a great way to separate yourself when playing a role.

I'm not against accents - my husband's from Lancashire and has a rural Lancs accent. We've just got back from Scotland yesterday, and I love that Highland burr.

I am critical of the parochial understanding of the Francophone movement and feel that it is used as a justification for not learning the language of the “other”. Those who respect the “other” are those who know them, and those who reject the language of the “other” are at a disadvantage. Learning the language of the “other” does not contradict our rejection of the dominance of their language, which is quite valid in my opinion.

My interest in the linguistic differences between women and men grew from research I conducted early in my career on conversations between speakers of different ethnic and regional backgrounds.

I'm interested in why people talk like they do. Like Boston Irish. It's so laid back. Why is that?