It is no secret that the fruits of language study are in no sort of relation to the labour spent on teaching and learning them.

No important national language, at least in the Occidental world, has complete regularity of grammatical structure, nor is there a single logical category which is adequately and consistently handled in terms of linguistic symbolism.

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

It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection.

A second type of direct evidence is formed by statements, whether as formal legends or personal information, regarding the age or relative sequence of events in tribal history made by the natives themselves.

Comparison of statements made at different periods frequently enable us to give maximal and minimal dates to the appearance of a cultural element or to assign the time limits to a movement of population.

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