Analysis uncovers how language shapes identity and fosters connection in individuals, while also leading to alienation.
Expanding on an earlier article on our attachment to place, in this article I explore our relationship to language and draw out the themes of language and identity and language as a source of connection and of alienation. I refer to writers who have been deprived of their “mother-tongue”, an interesting term with its connotations to the maternal, or who have been silenced in various ways. I also touch on my own affinity to language.
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Sue Wright (2025) studied this question.
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