Ferdinand de Saussure Quotes

Language is not just a code; you are writing into its history, into its tides.

There is a pride in speaking this language.

Latin is beautiful and has become something of an international language, but there is also something about singing in your native language that has meaning.

For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.

It is my great good luck the words I use are English words, which means I live in a very old nation of open borders; a rich, deep, multi-layered, promiscuous universe, infused with Latin, German, French, Greek, Arabic and countless other tongues.

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

If French is no longer the language of a power, it can be the language of a counter power.

There is no such thing as an ugly language. Today I hear every language as if it were the only one, and when I hear of one that is dying, it overwhelms me as though it were the death of the earth.

I still keep my accent.

I have a high regard for Native languages and the pivotal role they have played in our nation's history.

English is my language because of the history, and what I try to do - and I did that in 'Carpentaria' in particular - is to write in the way we tell stories and in the voice of our own people and our own way of speaking.

Languages are the pedigrees of nations.

If I could talk in only one language for the rest of my life, it'd be Tamil.

Just because I take my music international doesn't mean I have to sing in English. I will continue to sing in Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati, and Tamil. I want to represent my own country through its own languages.

The idea of New Zealanders sounding like Americans is not it. You got to rhyme in your language, your accent.

The best time to catch tribal jargon is when it's not looking.

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

The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it.

Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation knows about its own identity.

Every people, in order to remain healthy and strong, has to have a grasp of its foundation story. Culture is a chrysalis - it is protective, it takes care of you. That's what cultures are for. You cannot rob a people of language, culture, mother, father, the value of their labor - all of that - without doing vast damage to those people.

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

The history of a culture can be determined by its untranslatable words.

[Dennis Mathis] was very sensitive about keeping the unique way that I spoke English - it had a lot of Mexicanisms or Mexican syntax. So you keep it in because it's adding something unique.

It is an absolute privilege to be able to speak another language and have it be something you grew up with. I think it's a very important thing and I think that everywhere else in the world people speak more than one language.

In my world, history comes down to language and art.