(Untitled)

[cleolinda]

Quick question: There's a quote about how English "mugs other languages and rifles through their pockets," or something similar, but I can't find the correct wording or a proper attribution for it. Does anyone recognize it?

ETA: Yay! Thanks, you guys! I did try googling it, but I think not having the correct wording was tripping me up.

Comments

[dachelle]

Seems to have come from a James D. Nicoll: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_D._Nicoll

[cleolinda]

Thanks! I couldn't find it on Google because I didn't have the right wording, I think. And I even tried Wikiquote and everything.

[aiglet]

Yes. The quote is original to James Nicoll and you can find the whole thing (with history) here.

[cleolinda]

Thanks!

[particle_person]

The best part of that link (which is the same as mine) was the response from Nicoll himself,

"If I had only known that was going to be my fifteen
minutes of fame, I'd have run that sucker through a spell checker and
taken more care while writing the surrounding material."
--James Nicoll

[mitchy]

James has an LJ if you want to check it out - james-nicoll

[particle_person]

http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/linguist/issues/13/13-499.html

[particle_person]

Wow, other people are even faster.

[froggimus_rex]

James D. Nicoll, at least according to wikiquote.

[celli]

I have a shirt with that quote. :)