Robert Lane Greene
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You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity
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published
2011
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9 editions
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You Are What You Speak byGreene
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“A truly enlightened attitude to language should simply be to let six thousand or more flowers bloom. Subcultures should be allowed to thrive, not just because it is wrong to squash them, because they enrich the wider culture. Just as Black English has left its mark on standard English Culture, South Africans take pride in the marks of Afrikaans and African languages on their vocabulary and syntax.
New Zealand's rugby team chants in Maori, dancing a traditional dance, before matches. French kids flirt with rebellion by using verlan, a slang that reverses words' sounds or syllables (so femmes becomes meuf). Argentines glory in lunfardo, an argot developed from the underworld a centyry ago that makes Argentine Spanish unique still today. The nonstandard greeting "Where y'at?" for "How are you?" is so common among certain whites in New Orleans that they bear their difference with pride, calling themselves Yats. And that's how it should be.”
― You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity
New Zealand's rugby team chants in Maori, dancing a traditional dance, before matches. French kids flirt with rebellion by using verlan, a slang that reverses words' sounds or syllables (so femmes becomes meuf). Argentines glory in lunfardo, an argot developed from the underworld a centyry ago that makes Argentine Spanish unique still today. The nonstandard greeting "Where y'at?" for "How are you?" is so common among certain whites in New Orleans that they bear their difference with pride, calling themselves Yats. And that's how it should be.”
― You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity
“Language is not law; it is in fact a lot like music. Speech is jazz – first you learn the basic rules, and then you become good enough to improvise all the time. Writing is somewhat more like classical composition, where established forms and conditions will hold greater sway.”
― You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity
― You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity
“Peeves are like that: my peeves are law, yours are unhealthy obsessions.”
― You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity
― You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity
Topics Mentioning This Author
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| Glens Falls (NY) ...: Links to audible book discussions | 9 | 8 | May 11, 2011 02:25PM |
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