Quote of the Day | 0924
The problem is a notion that a language doesn’t really exist unless it is thriving on the page. But that is, frankly, an illusion due to the invention of print just several centuries ago. There are about 6000 languages in the world, and only about 200 are written in any real way. That is, there are 5800 languages that are only spoken–and yet tell their speakers that the languages they learn on their mommies’ knee are not “real”!
John McWorther, ‘Don’t Believe the Hype About Aborigines, Yiddish, or Ebonics’
McWorther reacted to this Guy Deutscher piece, that gave the Quote of the Day, on 29 August.
[x]#7844 fan vrijdag 24 september 2010 @ 10:37:40
