11 John McWhorter Quotes for You to Enjoy

John McWhorter

American Writer

Black Good Great Language People You

Related authors: Dale Carnegie Denis Waitley Dr. Seuss H. L. Mencken Napoleon Hill Ray Bradbury W. E. B. Du Bois William Arthur Ward

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

Good You Queen World Victim Every Drama Drama Queen Way Feels Cry Crying Real Person Any Really Third

Texting is fingered speech. Now we can write the way we talk. John McWhorter

Way Write Talk Texting Now Speech

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

You Think Punctuation Those About Structure No-One Talk Loose Texting Texts Very Again Capital Then Letters Things Thinks

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

Time You People Complicated Walk Language Somewhere Stroke Pretty Having Never Spoken Look Most Around Without How Go Heard Friendly Going Tiny Us Languages Hard Speaking English User User-Friendly Hard Time Chances Imagining

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

Love Me People Black Big Expectation White Mine Unrealistic Concerned Anybody As Far As Not Interested Interested Loving Theme Far Themselves

Loving your language means a command of its vocabulary beyond the level of the everyday. John McWhorter

Communication Language Everyday Vocabulary Beyond Command Loving Means Your Level

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

Great School Great Britain Those About Hybrid Absolutely Spoke Alongside Learn Because Dialects Were West Very America Contribution Often African Interesting Regional Worked Languages Who Exposed Servants Actually Britain Slaves

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

Natural People Speak Black Men Young Difficult Other Though System Running Something Spoken Particular Understand Dialect Issue Been Itself Very Quickly Which Young Men Really English Who Even Each Raised

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

People Complicated Language Few Thousand More Head Spoken Most Make Trader Than Manhattan Much Your Languages Swim Bond

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

John McWhorter Quotes

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