Back of the purely objective system of sounds that is peculiar to a language [...] there is a more restricted 'inner' or 'ideal' system which [...] can [...] be brought to his consciousness as a finished pattern, a psychological mechanism.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.55

The inner sound system [...] may persist as a pattern, involving number, relation, and functioning of phonetic elements, long after its phonetic content is changed.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.55

Two historically related languages or dialects may not have a sound in common, but their ideal sound-systems may be identical patterns. I would not [...] imply that this pattern may not change. It may shrink or expand or change its functional complexion, but its rate of change is [...] less rapid than that of the sounds as such.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.56

Wherever we go we are impressed by the fact that pattern is one thing, the utilization of pattern quite another.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.59

In assuming the existence of comparable types, [...] we are merely affirming that back of the face of history are powerful drifts that move language, [...] to balanced patterns, in other words, to types.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.122

If every noun plural in English were of the type of 'book: books', if there were not such conflicting patterns as 'deer: deer', 'ox: oxen', 'goose: geese' [...] the fusion of [...] 'book' and '-s' into the unified word 'books' would be felt as a little less complete than it actually is.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.131