David Crystal

The internet is an amazing medium for languages,

— David Crystal

Online, you show how brilliant you are by manipulating the language of the Internet.

— David Crystal

Swearing makes an excellent relief mechanism

— David Crystal

There is no such thing as an ugly accent, like there's no such thing as an ugly flower.

— David Crystal

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

— David Crystal

Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries - eventually - reflect popular choices.

— David Crystal

Anyone interested in language ends up writing about the sociological issues around it.

— David Crystal

Vocabulary is a matter of word-building as well as word-using.

— David Crystal

At the same time we overlap, because, I do linguistics, and Ben did a first degree in Linguistics at Lancaster University, so…

— David Crystal

Language itself changes slowly but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly.

— David Crystal

People say that text messaging is a new language and that people are filling texts with abbreviations - but when you actually…

— David Crystal

Academics don't normally manage to alter people's way of thinking through their strength of argument.

— David Crystal

We are rearing a generation of kids who are more equitable and more understanding about the existence of language variety and why…

— David Crystal

The story of English spelling is the story of thousands of people - some well-known, most totally unknown - who left a…

— David Crystal

One notable feature is that English doesn't have much of a system for expressing relative social status.

— David Crystal

“Intonation is the use of pitch to convey meaning in a language. It has been described as the music or melody of…

— David Crystal

Ever since the arrival of printing - thought to be the invention of the devil because it would put false opinions into…

— David Crystal

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

It doesn't take a language long to disappear once the spirit to continue with it leaves its community. In fact, the speed…

— David Crystal

'Spell it Out' rose to be number 4 on the best-selling Amazon chart - ahead of 'Fifty Shades of Grey!' Who ever…

— David Crystal

A community, once it realises that its language is in danger, can get its act together and introduce measures which can genuinely…

— David Crystal

You can say now, 'I dissed him' - to diss, I dissed him - or, 'Stop dissing her'. And that's the interesting…

— David Crystal

“The story of the English writing system is so intriguing, and the histories behind individual words so fascinating, that anyone who dares…

— David Crystal

“The end of his great project was in sight, and then he encountered the verb take, with its remarkable number of senses.…

— David Crystal

Several of us linguists at that time would record our own kids, just to get some data. There was some literature on…

— David Crystal

I believe that any form of writing exercise is good for you. I also believe that any form of tuition which helps…

— David Crystal

“Here are three elements we often see in town names: If a town ends in “-by”, it was originally a farmstead or…

— David Crystal

“In Old English, thou ( thee, thine , etc.) was singular and you was plural. But during the thirteenth century, you started…

— David Crystal

Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries eventually reflect popular choices. And the Internet is allowing more people to influence spelling than ever…

— David Crystal

“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

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

“The chief characteristic of English grammar is the way words are arranged within sentences, and the technical term for this process is…

— David Crystal

What turns teenagers on more than the Internet these days? If you can get a language out there, the youngsters are much…

— David Crystal

It hasn't been a problem with Ben, I think we worked together very well, we don't have rows.

— David Crystal

In effect we are, bending and breaking the rules of the language. And if someone were to ask why we do it,…

— David Crystal

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

The one thing about internet language, people join it, and what quickly evolves is an 'internet dialect,' as it were.

— David Crystal

English does have a larger vocabulary than other languages because of its history as the primary language of science and its global…

— David Crystal

Language changes and moves in a different direction evolving all the time. Where a lot of people see deterioration, I see expressive…

— David Crystal

Research shows that those kids who text frequently are more likely to be the most literate and the best spellers, because you…

— David Crystal