From: kehoea@parhasard.net   
      
    Ar an fichiú lá de mí Aibreán, scríobh Ross Clark:   
      
    > His birthday (1-4-1887) was noted  during my 2018 Linguistic Birthdays   
    > sequence. He was still very influential in linguistics when I began to learn   
    > about it in the 1960s, particularly for his book _Language_ (1933).   
    >   
    > Crystal has a quote from Chapter 2 of that book:   
    >   
    > "The most difficult step in the study of language is the first step. Again   
    > and again, scholarship has approached the study of language without actually   
    > entering upon it. Linguistic science arose from relatively practical   
    > preoccupations, such as the use of writing, the study of literature and   
    > especially of older records, and the prescription of elegant speech, but   
    > people can spend any amount of time on these things without actually   
    > entering into linguistic study."   
      
   A very small-tent approach, odd to take it as someone academically senior, who   
   might be thought to have reason to increase his area of interest. Rules out   
   PTD’s ‘The World’s Writing Systems’ for one.   
      
   --   
   ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /   
   How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’   
   (C. Moore)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)