(no subject)

[cleolinda]

Quick question: There's a quote about how English "mugs other languages and rifles through their pockets," or something similar, but I can't find the correct wording or a proper attribution for it. Does anyone recognize it?

ETA: Yay! Thanks, you guys! I did try googling it, but I think not having the correct wording was tripping me up.

Comments

[dachelle.livejournal.com]

Seems to have come from a James D. Nicoll: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_D._Nicoll

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I couldn't find it on Google because I didn't have the right wording, I think. And I even tried Wikiquote and everything.

[aiglet.livejournal.com]

Yes. The quote is original to James Nicoll and you can find the whole thing (with history) here (http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/13/13-499.html).

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

The best part of that link (which is the same as mine) was the response from Nicoll himself,

"If I had only known that was going to be my fifteen
minutes of fame, I'd have run that sucker through a spell checker and
taken more care while writing the surrounding material."
--James Nicoll

[mitchy.livejournal.com]

James has an LJ if you want to check it out - james_nicoll

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/linguist/issues/13/13-499.html

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Wow, other people are even faster.

[froggimus_rex]

James D. Nicoll, at least according to wikiquote.

[celli]

I have a shirt with that quote. :)

[allie-meril.livejournal.com]

Others seem to have hit on the attribution, and here's the version I have saved in my random quotes file: English doesn't borrow from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.

[angelene.livejournal.com]

I had an icon with that quote, as found here (http://community.livejournal.com/thefunkyicon/9690.html#cutid1), the original source being seemingly the Urban Dictionary (online).

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Am glad everyone has you covered on the quote front. But here's the one I can never get out of my mind:

“English is an ugly, lurching fool of a language.”
“But it communicates hate well.”
“That is nothing to be proud of.”

Warren Ellis may be a mixed bag, but when he hits, he hits.

Hee! One of my most favourite quotes ever!

[ishara.livejournal.com]

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. 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."
--James D. Nicoll

[library-of-sex.livejournal.com]

I've never heard that quote till now, but it's AWESOME! And very true. Actually, the English language beat my father in downtown L.A. just last week. It was sooper scary!

[thessalian.livejournal.com]

I know you already have the answer - but I has an icon.

[kokopellinelli]

The strangest thing about this is that this entry shows up on my friends list right above a metaquote by james_nicholl.

Gah, sorry. I fail at lj tags.

[redbeardjim.livejournal.com]

One of my favorites is from H. Beam Piper:

"You know what English is? The result of the efforts of Norman men-at-arms to make dates with Saxon barmaids in the Ninth Century Pre-Atomic, and no more legitimate than any of the other results."

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Fuzzy Sapiens! Victor Grego to Dr. Ernest Mallin.

... I am such a geek. ^_^

[redbeardjim.livejournal.com]

That's Pappy Vic and Unka Ernst to you.

[kittygopounce.livejournal.com]

lol!