great expectations

"It is clear that several hundred, and perhaps even several thousand languages, will vanish forever in the next century. To the extent that these languages express unique cultures, and form part of the mosaic of human intellectual activity, we must do everything we can to document them--and hopefully even save some of them--before it's too late.

As far is English goes, I look forward to the day when today's teenagers are octogenarians lamenting the corrupt speech patterns of their grandchildren, and longing for those halcyon days when everyone, like, spoke right." Assistant Professor of Linguistics