Rough Draft

Language and Identity

Language is the communication means of expression used by people to communicate and is an essential means of communication. On the other hand, language may be linked to an identity of an individual since people distinctively differ from each other. Individuals may use language to show their similarities and differences, asserting an individual identity. According to Tacelosky, a social group may be united via a specific language, and individuals’ identities keep shifting depending on the context, occasion, and purpose. (75). In determining individual identity, language is essential, and it also helps identify individuals with given social statuses, gender, race, or nationality. In family settings within the diverse communities in New York, they use a common language that appeals to them to communicate. Using a language to share with family members helps rekindle feelings of endearment and attachment among the family members and gives them a sense of belonging and togetherness. Using a language that identifies with them helps determine their identity and uphold their roots in the diverse communities.

 Like the African Americans and Asian Americans, the various diverse communities in New York use them to appeal to their members. They communicate in languages that can be easily understood by their members and one that resonates well with them. Each of the diverse members upholds their language and uses it whenever necessary since it forms part of their identity within the community. The various communities may be small, but each has its own identity created through multiple relationships and the history of the community members. Linguistic identity results from the intersection between the language and the community and is often determined by the speakers’ experiences. The types of languages used by the diverse communities reflect their identities and the need to preserve them at all costs.

Language and Culture

Abduramanova et al. state that Sociolinguistics is concerned with the relationship between language and society; it explores why individuals speak differently in various social surroundings. (1265.) Sociolinguistics explains the functions and roles of language and how it is deployed to convey a given meaning. Analyzing how individuals use languages in different surroundings provides information on how a language functions since it is a communication system between s social phenomena and people. The language and society segment show how language use is affected by gender, race, and class. The relationship between language and society is tightly anchored and deeply rooted in the diverse communities in New York. Language plays various roles in society, and society also does the same. (Akramova& Mullaeva ,1235).  The language exists because of the community’s existence, and one cannot survive without the other. Being the primary communication tool, language establishes peace and order in society, indicates power and authority, and helps attain objectives and goals.

Language can also have detrimental effects on society when misused since it must follow the rules that govern society to avoid conflicts and appreciate the boundaries of individual differences. The organization controls the language used by giving the people preferences that are acceptable or not because all the members have various perceptions and points of view. The language good among Asian Americans may be permitted only among them but not acceptable to other communities like the African Americans. Most of the storefronts among the Hispanic communities are with names that relate directly to their culture and have a cultural background. This makes the signs appealing to the community members and attracts them to buy items from such shops since they consider those shops as their own. The culture of that particular community influences the language used in the shops in doing the signs, and it aims at appealing to the members of that specific community.

Language, Power, and Hegemony

 For a long time the United States has been a multilingual country since 1776. The United States Census Bureau’s American Community Survey discovered that in 2005 over 19% of the population regularly spoke a language other than English at home. According to Shapiro, most Americans believe that the United States is an English-speaking nation despite the various diverse communities. (275). Most of the diverse communities in the United States, like the African Americans, have embraced English as a national language but resort to their languages when communicating with family and community members. The Hispanic Americans also use languages other than English to communicate within their localities and their places of doing business. The Hegemony concept that tries to set rules and commands for people to follow, such as the acceptance of English as a national language, has not stopped the diverse communities from embracing their languages and cultures.

Hegemony seeks to have a group of people and their ability to hold on to power and influence social institutions’ daily thoughts and beliefs. The languages spoken may also symbolize power since the most dominant language in the diverse communities tends to be voted into offices and other institutions of power. The languages spoken by various people in the communities have been used to influence the power structures and create inclinations towards certain groups that later get into offices. Other groups have also been able to use the power of their languages in the signpost to attract people to their shops by directly speaking to them through such. Because of the languages spoken by the Asian Americans, they can mobilize most of their members and rally them towards a specific candidate, hence influencing the country’s power structure.

Conclusion

Language is more material than society since it is a channel people use to make communication possible. It entails written elements and sounds and can be used by individuals from given territories to communicate with each other. Language seems more science since it involves certain characters, grammar, and rules that aid communication. The language is primarily learned from the surrounding language, like peers and parents. Individuals can interact and share ideas with others as used in the diverse communities in New York as a form of interaction. Language plays two significant roles; it aids in communication and provides people with a sense of pride and identity. Individuals typically identify themselves with a given language and use various jargons that are only understandable to them. Language also shows the social status, race, and gender of the language speakers; people from different social statuses use other languages. According to et al. Zarei, different genders also use different vocabularies of the languages. (161).

 Language is also considered the source of racial identity, as witnessed in the diverse groups in New York; they use speeches that resonate well with the people of their race. They can create racial identity by using languages that appeal to their community members while embracing English as the national language of engaging those not from their communities. The diverse communities have embraced super-diversity in their communities and learned how to coexist.

Works Cited

Abduramanova, Diana, and Shakhina Rasulmetova. “Understanding the relationship of language culture and society.” Academic research in educational sciences 3 (2020): 1262-1265.

Akramova, G., and N. Mullaeva. “Language and culture.” ACADEMICIA: An International Multidisciplinary Research Journal 11.4 (2021): 1212-1215.

Shapiro, Michael J. “Language and Power: The Spaces of Critical Interpretation 1.” language, symbolism, and politics. Routledge, 2019. 269-287.

Tacelosky, Kathleen. “Transnational education, language and identity: A case from Mexico.” Society Register 2.2 (2018): 63-84.

Zarei, Gholam Reza, Hossein Pourghasemian, and Mahmood Khalessi. “English language cultural bias in the process of globalization: analysis of Interchange Series.” (2019): 151-178.