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 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
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
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 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
I don't have any particular desire to see words making a comeback. They are of their era, after all, and that is… — David Crystal Comeback Copy Share Image
It's very difficult to find even one or two criteria that you will find in every Internet situation, and the reason is… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
The ethos of 50 years ago was that there was one kind of English that was right and everything else was wrong;… — David Crystal Ethos Copy Share Image
In Cardiff, I've heard a number of accent mixes that weren't previously heard before such as Cardiff-Arabic and Cardiff-Hindi. This pattern is… — David Crystal Identity Copy Share Image
Increasingly, over the past ten years, I've come to take the view that a cultural perspective is intrinsic to the future of… — David Crystal Education Copy Share Image
When we look at the specific effect of the Internet on language, languages asking the question, 'Has English become a different language… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
Languages like English, Spanish, and Chinese are healthy languages. They exist in spoken, written, and signed forms, and they're used by hundreds… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
Speaking, writing, and signing are the three ways in which a language lives and breathes. They are the three mediums through which… — David Crystal Generation 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
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
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
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
“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
Of all the mediums that influence language, I think film is the one that has the most effect. Not so much from… — David Crystal Cinema Copy Share Image
The Internet has given us 10 or 15 new styles of communication: long messages like blogging, and then short messages like texting… — David Crystal Communication Copy Share Image
Word books traditionally focus on unusual and quirky items. They tend to ignore the words that provide the skeleton of the language,… — David Crystal Book Copy Share Image
Grammar is what gives sense to language … sentences make words yield up their meaning. Sentences actively create sense in language. And… — David Crystal Giving Copy Share Image
Language has no independent existence apart from the people who use it. It is not an end in itself; it is a… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
The death of a language. The word has the same kind of reluctant resonance as it has when we talk about the… — David Crystal Death 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 Copy Share Image
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 Community Copy Share Image
Ever since the arrival of printing - thought to be the invention of the devil because it would put false opinions into… — 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
“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
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
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
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
“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
“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
