3 429 end linguists becoming linguist sure many reasons linguists 17 years ba tired diletant felt betrayed revolution also guilty giving president son pta headache every time raised hand reported decided really wanted go back school nt want economics ba one evening dinner san francisco friends met harvey pitkin working wintu phd berkeley moaned nt know wanted grew said linguist said could nt even speak english said nt matter liked cross word puzzles made secret languages wa little girl talked phonemes morphemes american indian languages finished bottle brandy decided applied linguistic dept ucla sure would reject knowing linguistics f undergraduate transcript low behold said yes sure mistake 1961 1962 entered th graduate program 1965 got phd eternally grateful harvey brandy ucla show longest sentence vicki fromkin