At any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects. — David Crystal Dialect Copy Share Image
Online, you show how brilliant you are by manipulating the language of the Internet. — David Crystal Brilliant Copy Share Image
Vocabulary is a matter of word-building as well as word-using. — David Crystal Building Copy Share Image
Anyone interested in language ends up writing about the sociological issues around it. — David Crystal About 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 Answers 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 I think 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
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 one thing about internet language, people join it, and what quickly evolves is an 'internet dialect,' as it were. — David Crystal About 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 Between 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 Badly 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 Verbs 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
You can say now, 'I dissed him' - to diss, I dissed him - or, 'Stop dissing her'. And that's the interesting… — David Crystal Become 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
“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
'Spell it Out' rose to be number 4 on the best-selling Amazon chart - ahead of 'Fifty Shades of Grey!' Who ever… — David Crystal Ahead 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 Blow 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
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
Academics don't normally manage to alter people's way of thinking through their strength of argument. — David Crystal Argument 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 Find 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 He 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 Expressing 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
Texting has added a new dimension to language use, but its long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster. — David Crystal Dimensions Copy Share Image
Sending a message on a mobile phone is not the most natural of ways to communicate. The keypad isn't linguistically sensible. — David Crystal Communicate Copy Share Image
Every usage, no matter how bizarre or nonstandard, fascinates me, as it tells me something about the way language is evolving. — David Crystal Evolving Copy Share Image
Although many texters enjoy breaking linguistic rules, they also know they need to be understood. — David Crystal Enjoy Copy Share Image
Everybody wants to say who they are and where they're from. And the easiest and cheapest and most universal way of doing… — David Crystal Everybody 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 Blend Copy Share Image
The Internet offers endangered languages a chance to have a public voice in a way that would not have been possible before. — David Crystal Chance Copy Share Image
