A Research on Non-standard Languages & its influence on IdentityBy Anastacia Clementson Language is an interesting part of society. It is as diverse as the people who speak it and sometimes unconsciously re-enforces that ‘different’ mentally that affect cohesion. However, language itself never stays loyal to such concepts of ‘them’ and ‘us;’ sometimes bringing the two together without their knowledge while creating its own little world within (and from) the language community that was already there.  Using the pieces ‘If Black English is not a Language, then tell me what is’ by James Baldwin, ‘Mother Tongue’s by Amy Tan, ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker and ‘Shooting an Elephant’ by George Orwell; I will explore the pervasiveness of non- standard languages and its consequences on one’s identity.  These four essays/ texts were chosen for the main point that I related to them. They made me feel and thus wanted to dissect them to understand them more. However, the secondary reason for them being here is of course because they can also help me understand more the puzzle of non- standard languages in relation to identity/ culture and the roles they give us as part of society. How Language Becomes Non-standard. There are many languages in today’s world compared to many years ago. Each continent with its own history and ways of living had their own mixture of people and their own languages but when these continents met not only was their way of life influenced but also their way of speaking. For instance, our English is made up of Germanic as well as Latin influences. Or more recently the Caribbean’s creole has influences of its African ancestors, Indian indentureship and colonialism. According to the English Language Teaching journal “Interlanguage is the learner’s developing second language knowledge and has some characteristics of the learner’s native language, of the second language, and some characteristics which seem to be very general and tend to occur in all or most Interlanguages” … (IPEK, 2009) From this we have an idea of how one language can give birth to so many junior languages and also the strong influences of the past on the present. Let us use Baldwin’s letter in New York Times in July 1979 as a reference (Baldwin, 1979).  In the first half of year 1979 several students from the Martin Luther King Elementary School in Michigan had lashed out against its way of teaching because their (the students) way of speaking was not accepted. The Judge had pointed out that the “home language” of black students should be given more regard in the schools to bring blacks into mainstream American society. This is the reason behind Baldwin’s essay. He had written that language is based on one’s history and the history of the black population is that they were from a different land altogether with different languages. However, growing up in America and following the need to fulfill their given roles they needed to communicate and with their already learnt first language together with the new language forced upon them, Black English was born. It was not as “cool” as Baldwin described it then but due to that change and the meeting of two language something different and “cool” was born. Noteworthy too is Baldwin’s statement that white people would not sound the way they sound if there was no black people. This is substantiated in the research of Hulya Ipek, ‘Comparing and Contrasting First and Second Language Acquisition’; “Input is defined as “language which a learner hears or receives and from which he or she can learn… there is a direct relationship between input and output.”(IPEK, 2009) So, one does not and cannot learn a new language in a vacuum, without listening to the language or having interactions. Thus, just like the initial language of the slaves were disrupted when they came to America so too were the American English of the Americans when they bought black people from Africa. Change in every way was inevitable as they influenced each other and created a new way of living, a new way of speaking due to those interactions.  Of course, such changes take time to evolve and, in most cases, are quite subtle. Tan’s ‘Mother Tongue’ (Tan, 1990) for instance details the author’s own ignorance to the fact she spoke many versions of English. She learnt to speak from home where she learnt her mom’s English then through formal education, she learnt what is called standard (England linguistic experts may disagree) or the American version of English. This not only diversified her speech but her roles, her identity (explored later).  She noted too that her home English became the main way of interacting with her husband. From her home with her mom then to her home with her husband, it was transferred. Tan did not share where her husband came from or anything about his first or second language, but I believe that the way of speaking, though markedly similar, will be different too. Her husband’s language history will be the main variant to affect this change because her home language will adjust to his and vice versa. Ultimately, with differences when compared with the way she may speak with her mom. The process of the acquisition of a new language or a non-standard language contributes to this assimilation. In his journal Ipek said “unmarked features are those that are universal or present in most languages and which the learners tend to transfer.(while) Marked rules are language specific features which the learner resists transferring” (IPEK, 2009). This is seen in Tan’s essay, but Baldwn’s seems more apt as there are many words within American history that were used to degrade blacks, making certain words to this day seem taboo in certain settings. This also sets the stage for identity as this is a key factor why blacks found it necessary to create their own English. Just as language builds national unity for a country it also serves to rebrand or give people or groups identity (a sense of belonging.   Language impacts Identity After understanding the inevitability in language diversification, it is important to understand how this then affects our identity or the roles we have in society. There is no one straightforward way to describe what identity is, one can say it is very dynamic and involves every aspect of oneself; the thoughts, body language, the way we speak, the people we choose to interact with and our flaws. It all makes up that unique package that is completely you. In Alice Walker’s essay, ‘Everyday Use’, Dee’s character is perfect to demonstrate identity and how it develops (Walker, 1973). Her mom gives us an understanding of her as the blacks heep of the family. Not to mean her character is bad but that she stood out. Her mom and Maggie were always content with themselves as they are even if there were some dreams of wanting to go with the trend at the time it was not to the extreme of doing something about it. Dee was different; she was not satisfied to be less than others or to have her dreams unattained. She wanted more for herself and thus demanded more from her family, who she thought lacking.    However, one cannot say that Dees’ wishes came out of nowhere or that Maggie’s was solely due to being burnt. They both grew up in the same environment, went to the same school but apparently did not have the same friends. I think the difference started there. As mentioned above by Ipek in her research, interaction plays a major part in learning language and ultimately molding one’s identity or future roles in society. Television, books, and school were all big factors that influenced Dee’s developing identity. These mediums allowed her exposure to more of the world and choose from there her likes, dislikes and thus the roles she wished to ultimately play in society. Considering, the era the essay was written from, the dominant language is standard English and we see Dee slowly assimilating to this identity. This is more substantiated by the lack of care shown to the things of her ancestors before she left for school and the disdain shown to her mom and sister while trying to teach them.  However, upon coming back we see a different Dee with a new way of dressing, a new name and more to our topic, a new way of speaking. This Dee has found her role in the educated bourgeois but now understands the importance of her roots. Instead of trying to shy away from it she embraces it but only the areas that can be romanticized. It always intrigues me how people try to celebrate the ‘roots’ of their ancestors yet throw away large chunks of it that they personally lived through.  However, this conflict in identity is in no way experienced by Dee only because Baldwin’s letter also indicates the struggle of black people in using standard American English versus their home language. They are both based in English language but the identities these different Englishs create were miles apart at that time. Though Baldwin made sure to point out that assimilation was a tw event because the whites also wanted to understand blacks too and what better way than speaking how they speak. Professor of Linguistics, Kira Haal, gives a contradicting but all the same powerful definition of identity. She stated that “Identity is an outcome of cultural semiotics that is accomplished through the production of contextually relevant sociopolitical relations of similarity and difference, authenticity and inauthenticity, and legitimacy and illegitimacy.” (Alshehri, 2023)   In every group, there are mixtures of sameness that identifies them, but there’s also that difference that identifies the individual or a group within that group.   From this too one can glimpse how different languages continue to develop. For every authentic role played in society there is inauthenticity and for every legitimate role there is also an illegitimate role (Ashehri, 2023). It is a consistent yet dynamic dance that keeps evolving but into something new with similarities of the past yet different. This speaks of opposing sides being born with every new language and identity, it seems the ‘them’ and ‘us’ cycle is truly an inevitable game that needs to be played with the birth of a new language, a new people, a new identity of sameness.   Still, language can be regarded as a communication tool and an attribute of empowerment and cultural identity. We can explore this by looking at Orwell’s experience in Burma, ‘Shooting an Elephant.’ (Orwell, 1936) In Burma where Orwell was stationed as a soldier under the British imperial power, the locals spoke Burmese. That was their identity, their area of power and control. Though in some respects this power and control is limited, due to their collectivity Orwell allows us to feel and understand the strength of a people who stand together. You can say he was psychologically compelled (forced) to act contrary to his wishes.   It was contrary to his wishes because Orwell did not want to kill the elephant. However, he was a soldier of the British army that played the role of undermining the locals, wielding their power over them. To not kill the elephant that had inadvertently killed someone and rampaged the area would be acting against that role or the identity of a powerful British soldier.   Due to the environment, one is brought up in sometimes one is forced to play the role others place upon them or believe they should be. Orwell sympathized with the Burmese and spoke their language but as we discussed earlier, speaking the language would not take away the quirks he had already acquired from his own British English, particularly his accent. Thus, he was considered a foreigner and more so a oppressive foreigner ruling over their land.    Tan has written of her own experience with stereotypes, but she said she was a rebel and stubbornly chose to go her own route. She was not good at as good as English compared to math, but she grew up in America, speaking English a lot more than Chinese, thus it should be no surprise that her identity will fit more with an American girl. Baldwin too mentions the myths that follow young black men because they refuse to follow the status quo, to blend or be “educated” white. But then there is Orwell himself who thought he knew himself but was forced to see himself differently after speaking Burmese and experiencing their culture. He chose to follow the trend to survive & be that oppressive British soldier they had long become familiar with. it was easy, it was what he was familiar with, like his first language. When compared to black English there are similar points to glean on the theme of fitting the required role to survive particularly when blacks believe it’s their role to be contrary while whites are compelled to terminate differences, variety, the other. In concluding this paper, I have been forced to admit that education is quite pivotal for persons but not formal school education but that starting from the home. It is where we learn about ourselves and where we begin dreaming of or future selves. Sometimes outside factors push us to the extremes of how we began but, in every essay, or article explored we see the history of the writer’s or the main characters past there in their words. Sometimes hidden, sometimes forgotten but it is truly the foundation of every other language learnt and every new experience.     References Alshehri, Somaya. (2023). The Relationship between Language and Identity. International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation. 6. 156-161. 10.32996/ijllt.2023.6.7.14. Baldwin, J. (1979, July 29). If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1979/07/29/archives/if-black-english-isnt-a-language-then-tell-me-what-is.html (2022). Coursehero.com. https://www.coursehero.com/file/119809434/Accent-A-literature-review-of-English-Language-Variation-on-Sociolinguistics-pdf/ ‌‌IPEK, H. (2009). Comparing and Contrasting First and Second Language Acquisition: Implications for Language Teachers. English Language Teaching, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v2n2p155 Orwell, G. (1936). Shooting an Elephant. The Orwell Foundation; New Writing. https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/shooting-an-elephant/ Rovira, L.C. (2008). The relationship between language and identity. The use of the home language as a human right of the immigrant. The relationship between language and identity. The use of the home language as a human right of the immigrant | Semantic Scholar ‌‌Tan, A. (1990). Mother Tongue. https://www.oleanschools.org/cms/lib/NY19000263/Centricity/Domain/166/Mother%20Tongue.pdf ‌ Walker, A. (1973 B.C.E., April). Everyday Use [Review oRead More »A Research on Non-standard Languages & its influence on Identity