American Language Quotes

If you loose the sounds comming out of New Orleans, you loose apart of the american language.

And I have a dream of a New American Language, one with a little bit more Spanish. I have a dream of a new pop music, that tells the truth with a good beat and some nice harmonies.

The American language is in a state of flux based upon survival of the unfittest.

H. L Mencken's Dictionary of the American Language supplies a long list of slang terms for being drunk, but the Irish are no slouches, either. They're spannered, rat-arsed, cabbaged, and hammered; ruined, legless, scorched, and blottoed; or simply trolleyed or sloshed. In Kerry, you're said to be flamin'; in Waterford, you're in the horrors; and in Cavan, you've gone baloobas, a tough one to wrap your tongue around if you ARE baloobas. In Donegal, you're steamin', while the afflicted in Limerick are out of their tree.

My local paper, The New York Times, Yahoo News, CBS, and The Washington Post, all agreed to stop using the word 'mistress.' The big one was the Associated Press. They made a style change, and it's the gold standard that sets the guide for news outlets around the world. That's a small step for the American language, a medium step for feminism, and a huge step for me personally.

Writing in African languages became a topic of discussion in conferences, in schools, in classrooms; the issue is always being raised - so it's no longer "in the closet," as it were. It's part of the discussion going on about the future of African literature. The same questions are there in Native American languages, they're there in native Canadian languages, they're there is some marginalized European languages, like say, Irish. So what I thought was just an African problem or issue is actually a global phenomenon about relationships of power between languages and cultures.

The American language differs from the English in that it seeks the top of expression while English seeks its lowly valleys.

The official language of the State of Illinois shall be known hereafter as the American language, and not the English language.

Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages

We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

American art, like the American language and American education, was as far as possible sexless.

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 vocabulary.

I got my dog back, in African-American language, your dog means your passion, your fire.

The common faults of American language are an ambition of effect, a want of simplicity, and a turgid abuse of terms.

You can't handle the truth!

Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me... aren't you?

May the Force be with you.

I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.

I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.