![]() ![]() " Ebon Heath - Typographic Mobile Print" by is marked with CC BY-NC 2.0. Historians and linguists, for example, know that there was no Haitian Creole prior to 1690 and likewise with Hawaiian Creole before 1880 yet within a generation of those dates, each respective language existed. In this way, Creole is the only language family in which the birth of specific iterations can be more or less pinpointed. Unlike other languages that evolved organically over the course of several generations, often as a result of splitting culture groups, the creation of Creole languages is a direct result of European encroachment and colonization, the bringing together of multiple differing cultures. Background of Creole & African American Vernacular English (AAVE) English will however be the primary colonial language in question when discussing specific racial intersections, such as AAVE. As the content and experiences outlined here are not unique to any one country or even region, the relationship between Blackness and language is discussed in the abstract. ![]() Followed by the exploration of the ways self-affirmative language has been used as a source of empowerment and decolonization for Black populations, including analysis of the contentious modern use of the ‘n-word’. Linguistic microaggressions, including but not exclusive to the use of pidgin and ulterior connotations of certain words when used towards Black people, and the practice of racial code-switching will then be discussed. To demonstrate this multifaceted intersection, a general introduction to the emergence of creole languages and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) must be examined. ![]() Deprived of an alternative language, Black people have subverted the language of their oppressors, making it their own as a source of empowerment. As Frantz Fanon put it, “All colonized people.position themselves in relation to the civilizing language.” Īs described by Frantz Fanon in his chapter “The Black Man and Language” in a colonial relation, language has been and continues to be used to oppress Black people. They instead are forced to speak of their struggles and oppression through the language of their colonizers. However, many Black persons, from various diasporas, residing in western countries do not have such an ability. For many colonized people, learning or speaking one’s ancestral language is an important form of cultural preservation, resistance, and decolonization. Black populations, especially those who have experienced the colonizing or civilizing process represent a particularly interesting paradigm. It has only been within recent decades that the role language plays in socialization have begun to be examined more closely and acknowledged within mainstream society. A study found that native speakers regularly use adjectives associated with masculine or feminine characteristics in describing nouns that are the corresponding ‘gender’: such as describing the masculine noun of “vino,” Italian for wine, as “strong and full-bodied” while describing the feminine noun of “birra,” beer as,“light and bubbly.” Considering the role language can play in societal conceptions of gender, it is especially important to examine the significance of language for racialized persons. Conversely, languages that have gendered nouns can also greatly impact and perpetuate unconscious gender bias. Such Indigenous languages allow for a worldview in which everything is more animate and fluid. Many North American Indigenous languages for example are verb-based, compared to Latin/Germanic-based languages that are noun-based. This can depend on the depth of description for certain concepts, such as colors, feelings, time, and direction or even the structure of the language itself. Linguists have since come to learn that the primary languages one speaks can have a direct influence on how one thinks and in turn perceives the world around them. Each language, and the variety that exists within them, is imbued with culture and history inseparable to its existence. People often underestimate the significance of language, both in the abstract and in regard to individual languages. It is from these congregations, each with their distinct methods of communication, language, that cultures are born. Humans naturally congregate and gravitate towards one another for more than just survival, rather for companionship and celebration, primarily through language. Whatever the modality, whether verbal, written, body-language, or even the release of various chemicals and pheromones, communication is universal between all living things. By Kelsey Da Silva, Carleton University Introduction
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