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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 its barbaric accretions. english swallows up anything that comes its way, makes english out of it.
-Robert A. Heinlein
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English Is The Largest Of Human Tongues,

Robert A. Heinlein
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 its barbaric accretions. english swallows up anything that comes its way, makes english out of it.
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Vocabulary Way Tongue

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Do not several sorts of rays make vibrations of several bignesses, which according to their bigness excite sensations of several colours, much after the manner that the vibrations of the air, according to their several bignesses excite sensations of several sounds? and particularly do not the most refrangible rays excite the shortest vibrations for making a sensation of deep violet, the least refrangible the largest form making a sensation of deep red, and several intermediate sorts of rays, vibrations of several intermediate bignesses to make sensations of several intemediate colours?
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I think they've got 250 languages in nigeria, and so english is a sort of lingua franca between the 250 languages.
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I have a funny relationship to language. when i came to california when i was three i spoke urdu fluently and i didn't speak a word of english. within a few months i lost all my urdu and spoke only english and then i learned urdu all over again when i was nine. urdu is my first language but it's not as good as my english and it's sort of become my third language. english is my best language but was the second language i learned.
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To know only one thing well is to have a barbaric mind: civilization implies the graceful relation of all varieties of experience to a central humane system of thought. the present age is peculiarly barbaric: introduce, say, a hebrew scholar to an ichthyologist or an authority on danish place names and the pair of them would have no single topic in common but the weather or the war (if there happened to be a war in progress, which is usual in this barbaric age).
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If you knew that only a few would care that you came, would you still come? if you knew that those you loved would laugh in your face, would you still care? if you knew that the tongues you made would mock you, the mouths you made would spit at you, the hands you made would crucify you, would you still make them? christ did.
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Being a slow reader would normally be a deficiency; i found a way to make it an asset. i began to sound words and see all those qualities - in a way it made words more precious to me. since so much of what happens in the world between human beings has to do with the inconsideration of language, with the imprecision of language, with language leaving our mouths unmediated, one thing which was sensuous and visceral led to, in the use of language, a moral gesture. it was about trying to use language to both exemplify and articulate what good is.
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