There is no such thing as an ugly accent, like there's no such thing as an ugly flower. — David Crystal Copy Share Image
At any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects. — David Crystal Dialect Copy Share Image
Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries - eventually - reflect popular choices. — David Crystal Choices Copy Share Image
Online, you show how brilliant you are by manipulating the language of the Internet. — David Crystal Brilliant Copy Share Image
Anyone interested in language ends up writing about the sociological issues around it. — David Crystal Copy Share Image
People are very ready to criticize other people's accents. There's no correlation between accents and intelligence or accents and criminality, but people… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
The one thing about internet language, people join it, and what quickly evolves is an 'internet dialect,' as it were. — David Crystal Copy Share Image
English does have a larger vocabulary than other languages because of its history as the primary language of science and its global… — David Crystal History Copy Share Image
“The chief characteristic of English grammar is the way words are arranged within sentences, and the technical term for this process is… — David Crystal English grammar Copy Share Image
Text messaging is just the most recent focus of people's anxiety; what people are really worried about is a new generation gaining… — David Crystal Anxiety Copy Share Image
“It’s often thought that the only function of pronunciation is to facilitate intelligibility; but it is also there to express personal or… — David Crystal Group identity Copy Share Image
What turns teenagers on more than the Internet these days? If you can get a language out there, the youngsters are much… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
It hasn't been a problem with Ben, I think we worked together very well, we don't have rows. — David Crystal Copy Share Image
“Here is a rewriting of the British national anthem, by 'Camille, Australia'. It is, she explains, chiefly for the benefit of Microsoft… — David Crystal Anthem Copy Share Image
“The story of the English writing system is so intriguing, and the histories behind individual words so fascinating, that anyone who dares… — David Crystal Adventure Copy Share Image
“The end of his great project was in sight, and then he encountered the verb take, with its remarkable number of senses.… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
You can say now, 'I dissed him' - to diss, I dissed him - or, 'Stop dissing her'. And that's the interesting… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
A community, once it realises that its language is in danger, can get its act together and introduce measures which can genuinely… — David Crystal Aboriginal Copy Share Image
There's nothing unusual about a single language dying. But what's going on today is extraordinary when we compare the situation to what… — David Crystal Language Copy Share Image
Likewise, there is no evidence that texting teaches people to spell badly: rather, research shows that those kids who text frequently are… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
Enshrined in a language is the whole of a community's history and a large part of its cultural identity. The world is… — David Crystal Community Copy Share Image
I believe that any form of writing exercise is good for you. I also believe that any form of tuition which helps… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
Several of us linguists at that time would record our own kids, just to get some data. There was some literature on… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
“In Old English, thou ( thee, thine , etc.) was singular and you was plural. But during the thirteenth century, you started… — David Crystal Language Copy Share Image
“Here are three elements we often see in town names: If a town ends in “-by”, it was originally a farmstead or… — David Crystal Language Copy Share Image
In effect we are, bending and breaking the rules of the language. And if someone were to ask why we do it,… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
The story of English spelling is the story of thousands of people - some well-known, most totally unknown - who left a… — David Crystal Fingerprints Copy Share Image
“Intonation is the use of pitch to convey meaning in a language. It has been described as the music or melody of… — David Crystal Communication Copy Share Image
One notable feature is that English doesn't have much of a system for expressing relative social status. — David Crystal Copy Share Image
Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries eventually reflect popular choices. And the Internet is allowing more people to influence spelling than ever… — David Crystal Choices Copy Share Image
Language itself changes slowly but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly. — David Crystal Change Copy Share Image
At the same time we overlap, because, I do linguistics, and Ben did a first degree in Linguistics at Lancaster University, so… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
People say that text messaging is a new language and that people are filling texts with abbreviations - but when you actually… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
Academics don't normally manage to alter people's way of thinking through their strength of argument. — David Crystal Argument Copy Share Image
We are rearing a generation of kids who are more equitable and more understanding about the existence of language variety and why… — David Crystal Generation Copy Share Image
As I get older and I get a few more years experience I become more like Dad, you know, King Lear. — David Crystal Dad Copy Share Image
One of the lesser-known ways of making new words is to form a blend - and a blend is when you run… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
