The very special place that a language occupies among institutions is undeniable, but there is much more to be said-, a comparison would tend rather to bring out the differences.

Speech has both an individual and a social side, and we cannot conceive of one without the other.

It is useful to the historian, among others, to be able to see the commonest forms of different phenomena, whether phonetic, morphological or other, and how language lives, carries on and changes over time.

A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas...

In general, the philological movement opened up countless sources relevant to linguistic issues, treating them in quite a different spirit from traditional grammar; for instance, the study of inscriptions and their language. But not yet in the spirit of linguistics.

Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass.

Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.