Edward Sapir Language Quotations

Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society.

No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality.

We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation.

English, once accepted as an international language, is no more secure than French has proved to be as the one and only accepted language of diplomacy or as Latin has proved to be as the international language of science.

A standard international language should not only be simple, regular, and logical, but also rich and creative.

As a matter of fact, a national language which spreads beyond its own confines very quickly loses much of its original richness of content and is in no better case than a constructed language.

National languages are all huge systems of vested interests which sullenly resist critical inquiry.

In a sense, every form of expression is imposed upon one by social factors, one's own language above all.

Language is the most massive and inclusive art we know, a mountainous and anonymous work of unconscious generations.