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Language death is like no other form of disappearance. When people die, they leave signs of their presence in the world, in the form of their dwelling places, burial mounds, and artefacts – in a word, their archaeology. But spoken language leaves no archaeology. When a language dies, which has never been recorded, it is as if it has never been.

— David Crystal

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More quotes by David Crystal

The only languages that do not change are dead ones.

There is little scientific data on the point, but evidently people do speak to themselves.

The main metaphor that is used to explain the historical relationship is that of the language family or family tree.

Fluency [is] smooth, rapid, effortless use of language.

Pragmatics studies the factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction and the effects of our choice on others.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: David Crystal (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.