more on university names on Language Log

[Fred Shapiro]

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006, Wilson Gray wrote:

> BTW, I heard an Englishman on TV refer to himself as standing out in
> the U.S. because of his speaking "with an English accent." Many years
> ago, Jacques Barzun, discussing cultural imperialism, wrote that only
> Americans had the gall to speak of the English as speaking English
> with an English accent. It would never occur to a Canadien to describe
> a Frenchman as speaking French with a French accent.

The answer to Barzun was best expressed by Mark Twain: "There is no
such thing as 'the Queen's English.' The property has gone into the hands
of a joint stock company and we own the bulk of the shares!"

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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