Newmeyer's quote

John Myhill john at RESEARCH.HAIFA.AC.IL
Fri Jan 24 06:40:29 UTC 1997


I think it would be a good idea for linguists to just keep our mouths shut
if the popular press comes looking for quotes about language and genetics.
It's obvious, to me at least, that, unless we know for sure in advance that
we will have 100% control over exactly what is printed, we are going to
come
across as having a racist agenda. We know that this isn't true, but after
Newmeyer's quote in Newsweek, I think that many non-linguists are going to
think either that linguists are racists or that linguistic research shows
that black-white differences in speech are genetically-based. It isn't
enough to say
`Alas.' Let's think first and talk on the record later or not at all. We don't
need to be so desparate to see ourselves in the news.  John Myhill



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