English Quote by Susie Dent Download Open image “From the start, English has happily absorbed words from every tongue it's encountered.” — Susie Dent ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.8 out of 5 (4 ratings) Copy quoteShare English Every Language Start Tongue Words
English has always been a mongrel tongue, snapping up words from every continent its speakers encountered. — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
English is the largest of human tongues, with several times the vocabulary of the second largest language -- this alone made it inevitable that English would eventually become, as it did, the lingua franca of this planet, for it is thereby the richest and most flexible -- despite its barbaric accretions . . . or, I should say, because of… — Robert A. Heinlein Copy Share
We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new… — Booker T. Washington Copy Share Image
Language is like drinking from one's own reflection in still water. We only take from it what we are at the time. — Simon Van Booy Copy Share Image
A feature of English that makes it different compared with all other languages is its global spread. — David Crystal Copy Share Image
Speaking English is like tongue-twist for me. I can speak each word perfect, but then you have to string them together like, 'Blah, blah,… — Jackie Chan Copy Share Image
Language to me is a tool a very clumsy tool. And words are garden tools with which to till the soil of one's life. — Joy Kogawa Copy Share Image
New words travel from one variety of English to another and at a rapidly increasing rate, thanks to the way language is exchanged today… — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
The language itself is what gets me interested in writing. It's weird to me that words exist. Never a dull moment with words. They're… — Aaron Belz Copy Share Image
English is such a deliciously complex and undisciplined language, we can bend, fuse, distort words to all our purposes. We give old words new… — Willard Gaylin Copy Share Image
According to my parents, I've always liked to tune into the conversations of others. But rather than hope for a snippet of salacious gossip,… — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
As dialect began to be collected in the late 19th century, such words as Yorkshire's 'gobslotch' emerged, revealing the burgeoning association between gluttony and… — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
In the earliest days, make-up and moralising were intertwined. The 'cosmetic slops and washes' of the 17th and 18th centuries aimed to smooth complexions… — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
I don't intentionally eavesdrop. I'm not looking for salacious gossip, I'm just looking for vocabulary items. — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
Above all, Jane Goodall continues to teach us that, as humans, we are no more entitled to our glorious planet than the chimps she… — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
The notion of 'Queen's English' is usually applied to our pronunciation. — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
Slang has different functions: many of the words we use are playful and a lot are tribal - we speak the same way as… — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
English has always been a mongrel tongue, snapping up words from every continent its speakers encountered. — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
As a nation we love our dialects, and there is a lot of regional variance in the names for different foods - barmcake, bap… — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
The one thing - apart from assumptions about German - that I have to challenge frequently is people assuming that lexicographers are fierce protectors… — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
The character of our language defines us, and dictionaries say as much about us as about the way we speak. — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
Almost half the adult population finds discussing the subject of money difficult. Slang words help us to navigate these conversations by making us feel… — Susie Dent Copy Share Image
English teachers tend to put more thought in the books than the author did — Anonymous Copy Share Image
Nothing teaches great writing like the very best books do. Yet, good teachers often help students cross that bridge, and I have to say… — Julia Glass Copy Share Image
“evening, they began to think that although he could never hope to be an Englishman, still it would be hard to visit that affliction… — Charles Dickens Copy Share Image
Nineteenth-century English literature I know; 19th-century sewage systems, not so much. — Glen Duncan Copy Share Image
Although I don't have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears. — Anonymous Copy Share Image
While we like to think queueing is unique to British culture, the truth is that we are mere amateurs. The old Soviet Union turned… — Julia Hartley-Brewer Copy Share Image
I was brought up by the English side of my family, who are very repressed and working class. Absolutely lovely, but very English. — Bat for Lashes Copy Share Image
No, I didn't forget Samoan - I understand it when you talk to me but, you know, to put phrases together I sound like… — Junior Seau Copy Share Image
The larger an English industry was, the more likely it was to go bankrupt, because the English were not naturally corporate people; they disliked… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Oh, I think country has changed tremendously. I think country has totally changed. Country music when I was a kid was Hank Williams. If… — John Mellencamp Copy Share Image
