Quotes by John Mcwhorter - Page 1

Racism is not dead. Definitely, there are these biases.
John Mcwhorter /
Racism
Biases
Dead
Copy Quote
Texting is fingered speech. Now we can write the way we talk.
John Mcwhorter /
Speech
Texting
Now
Talk
Write
Copy Quote
As a linguist, I see the arbitrariness of strictures editors force on me as a writer.
John Mcwhorter /
Editors
Me See I See
Copy Quote
Loving your language means a command of its vocabulary beyond the level of the everyday.
John Mcwhorter /
Communication
Command
Everyday
Language
Vocabulary
Beyond
Level
Loving
Copy Quote
The only way that residual racist feelings could affect legislation, in my opinion, is through a lack of priorities, from not doing things.
John Mcwhorter /
Legislation
Priorities
Residual
Affect
In My Opinion
Copy Quote
People think of black English as ungrammatical, but it bears the same relationship to standard English as contemporary Hebrew does to ancient Hebrew.
John Mcwhorter /
Relationship
Ancient
Bears
Contemporary
Hebrew
English
Standard
Copy Quote
'LOL' is one of several texting expressions that convey nuance in a system where you don't have the voice and face to do it the way you normally would.
John Mcwhorter /
Nuance
Texting
Voice
Face
Convey
Expressions
Normally
Several
System
Copy Quote
Texting is very loose in its structure. No one thinks about capital letters or punctuation when one texts, but then again, do you think about those things when you talk?
John Mcwhorter /
Letters
Punctuation
Structure
Texting
Capital
Loose
Thinks
Copy Quote
Ebonics - or black English, as I prefer to call it - is one of a great many dialects of English. And so English comes in a great many varieties, and black English is one of them.
John Mcwhorter /
Prefer
English
Dialects
Copy Quote
People have been warning us that language was going to the dogs ever since Latin started turning into French. Yet the dogs in question never seem to emerge yelping on the horizon.
John Mcwhorter /
Horizon
Latin
Warning
Turning
French
Dogs
Emerge
Copy Quote
Most languages spoken by a few thousand people are so complicated they make your head swim; a Siberian yak herder's language is much more complicated than a Manhattan bond trader's.
John Mcwhorter /
Complicated
Manhattan
Swim
Thousand
Your People More
Bond
Languages
Spoken
Trader
Copy Quote
As far as I'm concerned, and this is a big theme of mine, I'm not interested in white people loving me. It's an unrealistic expectation. Black people don't love anybody but themselves.
John Mcwhorter /
Concerned
Not Interested
Love Me Black
Expectation
Love Black Me
Unrealistic
Copy Quote
People banging away on their smartphones are fluently using a code separate from the one they use in actual writing, but a code it is, to which linguists are currently devoting articles.
John Mcwhorter /
Articles
Banging
Code
Actual
Currently
Fluently
Separate
Copy Quote
Every third person in the world is a drama queen. And crying 'victim,' especially when you're not really a victim in any real way, feels good. It feels good to cry victim if you're not one.
John Mcwhorter /
Cry
Drama
Feels
Victim
Good World Way
Crying
Drama Queen
Queen
Third
Copy Quote
Black English is simpler than standard English in some ways; for example, it often gets by with just 'be' and drops 'am,' 'is,' and 'are.' That's because black English arose when adult African slaves learned the language.
John Mcwhorter /
Black
Example
Adult
African
Drops
For Example
Gets
Just Be
Learned
Standard
Simpler
Slaves
Ways
Copy Quote
Rap and spoken word have reawakened the country to poetry in itself. Texting and Twitter encourage creative uses of casual language, in ways I have celebrated widely. But we've fallen behind on savoring the formal layer of our language.
John Mcwhorter /
Casual
Country
Creative
Fallen
Formal
Language
Rap
Spoken Word
Texting
Twitter
Behind
Celebrated
Itself
Encourage
Word
Spoken
Uses
Ways
Widely
Copy Quote
As languages go, English is pretty user friendly. If you look at a tiny language spoken somewhere that most of us have never heard of, chances are it's going to be so complicated that you have a hard time imagining how people can walk around speaking it without having a stroke.
John Mcwhorter /
Complicated
Friendly
Heard
Tiny
Time Walk Look
Somewhere
English
Languages
Chances
Hard Time
Imagining
Speaking
Spoken
Stroke
User
Copy Quote
It would be good if teachers could genuinely understand that black English is not mistakes, it's just different English, and that what you want to do is add an additional dialect to black students' repertoire rather than teaching them out of what's thought of as a bad habit, like sloppy posture or chewing with your mouth open.
John Mcwhorter /
Add
Chewing
Dialect
Habit
Posture
Sloppy
Additional
Teachers
Good Black Bad
Bad Habit
Genuinely
Mouth
Repertoire
Copy Quote
The contribution of West African languages to Ebonics is absolutely infinitesimal. What it actually is is a very interesting hybrid of regional dialects of Great Britain that slaves in America were exposed to because they often worked alongside the indentured servants who spoke those dialects that we often learn about in school.
John Mcwhorter /
Britain
Contribution
Exposed
Great Britain
Hybrid
West
Absolutely
African
Alongside
Languages
Dialects
Regional
Servants
Slaves
Spoke
Copy Quote
Black English is something which - it's a natural system in itself. And even though it is a dialect of English, it can be very difficult for people who don't speak it, or who haven't been raised in it, to understand when it's running by quickly, spoken in particular by young men colloquially to each other. So that really is an issue.
John Mcwhorter /
Dialect
Particular
Raised
English
Men Black People
Issue
Quickly
Spoken
Young Men
Copy Quote

Related Authors

Dr. Seuss
Writer
Wednesday, Mar 02, 1904
Tuesday, Sep 24, 1991
Aristotle
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
H. L. Mencken
Journalist
Sunday, Sep 12, 1880
Sunday, Jan 29, 1956
Muhammad Ali
Professional Boxer
Saturday, Jan 17, 1942
Friday, Jun 03, 2016
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Poet
Saturday, Aug 05, 1809
Thursday, Oct 06, 1892
John C. Maxwell
Author
Thursday, Feb 20, 1947
Nelson Mandela
Former President Of South Africa
Thursday, Jul 18, 1918
Thursday, Dec 05, 2013
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essayist
Wednesday, May 25, 1803
Thursday, Apr 27, 1882
Maya Angelou
Author
Wednesday, Apr 04, 1928
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Helen Keller
Author
Sunday, Jun 27, 1880
Saturday, Jun 01, 1968
Socrates
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Heraclitus
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Martin Luther
Monk
Saturday, Nov 10, 1483
Monday, Feb 18, 1546
Peter Drucker
Author
Friday, Nov 19, 1909
Friday, Nov 11, 2005
Marcus Aurelius
Roman Emperor
Saturday, Apr 26, 0121
Friday, Mar 17, 0180

View All Quotes

Top Authors

Walt Disney
Animator
Thursday, Dec 05, 1901
Thursday, Dec 15, 1966
Billy Graham
Evangelist
Thursday, Nov 07, 1918
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Writer
Thursday, Aug 28, 1749
Thursday, Mar 22, 1832
Les Brown
Author
Saturday, Feb 17, 1945
Barack Obama
44Th U.s. President
Friday, Aug 04, 1961
Groucho Marx
Comedian
Thursday, Oct 02, 1890
Friday, Aug 19, 1977
Carl Sagan
Astronomer
Friday, Nov 09, 1934
Friday, Dec 20, 1996
Tyler, The Creator
Rapper
Wednesday, Mar 06, 1991
Benjamin Franklin
Founding Father Of The United States
Sunday, Jan 17, 1706
Saturday, Apr 17, 1790
Kanye West
Songwriter
Wednesday, Jun 08, 1977
Thursday, Jun 04, 2015
Dwight D. Eisenhower
34Th U.s. President
Tuesday, Oct 14, 1890
Friday, Mar 28, 1969
Pope Francis
Thursday, Dec 17, 1936
Vincent Van Gogh
Painter
Wednesday, Mar 30, 1853
Tuesday, Jul 29, 1890
Zig Ziglar
Author
Saturday, Nov 06, 1926
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012
Charles Spurgeon
Preacher
Thursday, Jun 19, 1834
Sunday, Jan 31, 1892

View All Authors

John Mcwhorter Quotes - Page 1

App & Tools

Related Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page

Stay Connected

App & Tools

Related Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page