“The structural properties of the language are many and complex, but at least they are finite and fairly easy to identify: there are only so many sounds, letters, and grammatical constructions, and although there is a huge vocabulary, at least the units are determinate and manageable.”

—  David Crystal

Source: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 1987, p. 286

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David Crystal 24
British linguist and writer 1941

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