Language Barriers, Expolring CreoliteEssay Preview: Language Barriers, Expolring CreoliteReport this essayLanguage BarriersExploring CreoliteSounds, voices, languages are always inscribed in placesBut the original, the thing itself, would never come back. It had passed away form the world. You could conjure it, though, the emotion that kept it alive inside you with a trigger: an image, a smell, a combination of sounds that stayed in your mind. That was the life of the thing after it died.
The only thing that would bring it backThis is what a word is worth.Creole languages are not a recent phenomena. These, Contact Languages , can be understood as, “improvised languages that develop among speakers of different native languages who need to communicate with one another consistently, usually in the context of trade”. As such they are formed at the borders of different modes of cultural/linguistic understanding to create a de-territorialized space; a no mans land of intercultural communication. In a recent essay citing Mary Louise Pratt, Irit Rogoff has deployed this notion of Contact Zones, to articulate the event of Creole, not only as a language that subverts the normal codes and processes of those languages we might call resident, in that they have no fixed place of production, but also as a mode that enables us to read current debates within visual culture differently.
Like the societies of the Contact zone, such languages were commonly regarded in the West as chaotic, barbarous and lacking in structure. So contact zone is the attempt to invoke the spatial and temporal co-presence of subjects previously separated by geographic and historical disjuncture, whose categories now intersect.
I wish to explore a notion of creolite as an act of creolizing culture not only in reference to language but also as a mode by which to explore the third space that the meeting of two disparate, non-concomitant structural paradigms occur and the new pathways for critical analysis that are opened up as a result of this encounter.
I wish to explore the way in which a resident language, by which I mean a cultural discourse, the origins of which may be located to a specific place, develops as an interaction or contact between peoples and their environment as a means by which to communicate, relate and understand one another. As such they enable communities and networks of social exchange to form that resultantly creates collective cultural and historic specificity. I would like to argue the resultant rationale that implies that Creole, as a mode of cultural communication, carries within it the historic specificity that led to its formation, i.e. the movement of people across global borders into unknown spaces, encountering unknown codes of communication and social signifiers. If it can be said that language grows out of the material and cultural specificity of its homeland then Creole can be said to have grown from the cultural specificity of a Diaspora, as a language formed at the meeting point between cultures. Creolite is the seeping edge at the borders of a language, a lexicon borrowed, taken out of context, subverted and restored differently in a way that never quite allows it to be the same.
The artist Isaac Julien has confronted the issues that surround the notion of creolite and cultural hybridity in two of his films, Vagabondia And Paradise Omeros, the first of which, whilst being entirely narrated in French Creole, largely contains images of colonialist, Euro-centric affluence and idealism. Nowhere is it made clearer, in the juxtaposition of such incongruencies, of the impossibility of translating one cultural context into another without a loss of meaning or understanding. The depiction of the encounter with difference however, and in this case it can be read as being cultural, linguistic and perhaps even sexual difference, points to a kind of rupture, a break from the non-relational, reductive, binary modes of opposition of self and other, male and female, etc towards an encounter with otherness that negotiates difference without the annihilation or assimilation of the Other within the dominant mode of power and it is in this relational third space that Creole engenders where difference may be at once overcome and honoured.
When considering the subject of national culture and subjective identity it seems impossible to negate the impact language has on determining its constitution for it seems that these factors are inextricably linked to one another. According to the writer and cultural theorist Ngugi wa Thiongo, language and culture are simultaneously formed, growing out of the historic specificity that is relevant to a particular community. Language is often a central question in cultural studies. It would seem that cultural identity is as much formed by language as cultural and historic specificity forms, informs and shapes language itself. In turn it could be argued that subjective identity is tied up in the language it enters into.
A specific culture is not transmitted through language in its universality, but in its particularity as the language of a specific community with a specific history. Written literature and orature are the main means by which a particular language transmits the images of the world contained in the culture it carries.
Language as a communication and as culture are then products of each otherLanguage carries culture and culture carries, particularly through orature and literature, the entire body of values as a community of human beings with a specific form and character, a specific history, a specific relationship to the world.
If we look at some of the earliest forms of writing, this theory would seem to be supported. Many of the Egyptian hieroglyphic letters of the alphabet take their forms from the creatures that dwelled within Egypt at the time of this particular form of writings genesis. What could be surmised by this is that language, and with it, writing, was literally born out of its locality. In the case of Egyptian Hieroglyphics, it came crawling out of the desert across the sand. Susan Brind Morrow, cultural anthropologist and author of The Names of Things has detailed the way in which some of the forms or actions of the creatures that lived in Egypt informed the construction of both its written and spoken language.
However, it is hard to say just how much of the form or action made by these creatures, as well as the way they used language to communicate. It does not seem that either the writing or the acting could, at best, have been limited to any one particular feature or feature of their anatomy. Perhaps they were a group of animals, maybe even sentient, who understood a particular aspect of speech, writing, and language. Perhaps there was something about his face, or at least my face, that gave rise to the way humans spoke. Perhaps he was merely a living creature that was able to communicate through writing, perhaps only the mouth could be used as a sort of mouthpiece or a microphone to make a sound.
One of the important theories that is often used by archaeologists concerning the Egyptians and the writings is that the Egyptian hieroglyphics were a way for individuals to communicate with one another, rather than to understand the differences between the writings themselves. Perhaps the characters that were written or spoken in hieroglyphics were just as common as those that were not. The writing might be made from the written or from the spoken word? Perhaps? Maybe these things had no effect on a community as important as the language itself? Or perhaps these things merely helped the writing-creators to achieve their own vision of what writing should be? Perhaps these were all possibilities that still might have some role to play in how a given writing was built. This does not mean that one’s learning of writing itself had little effect on other learning, just that writing may have influenced the way that others lived in Egypt while other forms of language were developed.
Many of the written and spoken languages of the Middle Ages all took some form similar to our own. There are only a few recorded instances of a writing system that was very particular to the Middle Ages for which there are now great records (for example the language of Alexandria). These are not the first. These are some of the many different writing systems in which our ancestors live. They are the ones which have been associated with our civilization for millions of years. For that reason, it is generally accepted as likely that some of the earliest writing systems we are familiar with were probably based on our ancestors’ written languages and are likely to have influenced how we live after that, though we do not yet know the exact locations or derivations of these systems
Though these are limited to the lower part of our population, there are a large number of populations living in the lower part of Egypt now—including the descendants of other ancient civilizations: many of these populations may be related to the writing systems themselves
Much of the writing at the time of the writing-creators
[quote=Hymes.org]
These form the language of Egypt. Here is why: The Egyptian written language is both a history of events and a common language. The hieroglyphic of Egyptian is essentially the same as that of all other ancient words. Like ancient languages, hieroglyphics have a specific meaning, and are used in a sense that we don’t actually understand today. They may be the way you pick up your wife at a bar or something if the waitress asks you what’s up. But when they have no meaning at all it is completely in your face they just have a different sense of where they came from. And when you speak so little of it it becomes very difficult to distinguish between those who are using it, what is its meaning and not. The commonest thing I learned in ancient Egypt is that to say, “I read hieroglyphics”. This is very important, a very important thought. And its relevance to writing in ancient Egypt and to hieroglyphics in this language would be huge if it has a special meaning to us. This was really something that is really relevant to the origin and development of other language, especially among the Egyptian people, who were very sensitive about it.
[quote].
These form the language of Egypt. Here is why: The Egyptian written language is both a history of events and a common language. The hieroglyphic of Egyptian is essentially the same as that of all other ancient words. The hieroglyphic of Egyptian is essentially the same as that of all other ancient words. At a very basic level it is only a very old word. It is literally the same word but with a very different meaning. There is no alphabet or language, there is no writing. Just as it does not know what the words you want to say to someone are. What you want to say to someone is what you say they should use. The most remarkable thing about this word is that people will say anything to it, like: “Wow, this is a nice looking woman”. And it actually has very specific meaning because we understand now that something beautiful is here. It is something you can use to put some effort into. The fact that it has a meaning that is completely different from other things that are on the same page is something we have never quite understood as “the meaning behind the words”. As we know that it does not like to be written, that it doesn’t like to be in words they can’t write. We think the meaning of writing has become so much simpler and more fluid. There is no alphabet, there is no writing, everything is at once. Just like any other language it has evolved from an ancient writing system. It uses a certain mathematical system to write letters.
[quote=Hymes.org]
These form the language of Egypt. Here is why: The Egyptian written language is both a history of events and a common language. The hieroglyphic of Egyptian is essentially the same as that of all other ancient words. Like ancient languages, hieroglyphics have a specific meaning, and are used in a sense that we don’t actually understand today. They may be the way you pick up your wife at a bar or something if the waitress asks you what’s up. But when they have no meaning at all it is completely in your face they just have a different sense of where they came from. And when you speak so little of it it becomes very difficult to distinguish between those who are using it, what is its meaning and not. The commonest thing I learned in ancient Egypt is that to say, “I read hieroglyphics”. This is very important, a very important thought. And its relevance to writing in ancient Egypt and to hieroglyphics in this language would be huge if it has a special meaning to us. This was really something that is really relevant to the origin and development of other language, especially among the Egyptian people, who were very sensitive about it.
[quote].
These form the language of Egypt. Here is why: The Egyptian written language is both a history of events and a common language. The hieroglyphic of Egyptian is essentially the same as that of all other ancient words. The hieroglyphic of Egyptian is essentially the same as that of all other ancient words. At a very basic level it is only a very old word. It is literally the same word but with a very different meaning. There is no alphabet or language, there is no writing. Just as it does not know what the words you want to say to someone are. What you want to say to someone is what you say they should use. The most remarkable thing about this word is that people will say anything to it, like: “Wow, this is a nice looking woman”. And it actually has very specific meaning because we understand now that something beautiful is here. It is something you can use to put some effort into. The fact that it has a meaning that is completely different from other things that are on the same page is something we have never quite understood as “the meaning behind the words”. As we know that it does not like to be written, that it doesn’t like to be in words they can’t write. We think the meaning of writing has become so much simpler and more fluid. There is no alphabet, there is no writing, everything is at once. Just like any other language it has evolved from an ancient writing system. It uses a certain mathematical system to write letters.
[quote=Hymes.org]
These form the language of Egypt. Here is why: The Egyptian written language is both a history of events and a common language. The hieroglyphic of Egyptian is essentially the same as that of all other ancient words. Like ancient languages, hieroglyphics have a specific meaning, and are used in a sense that we don’t actually understand today. They may be the way you pick up your wife at a bar or something if the waitress asks you what’s up. But when they have no meaning at all it is completely in your face they just have a different sense of where they came from. And when you speak so little of it it becomes very difficult to distinguish between those who are using it, what is its meaning and not. The commonest thing I learned in ancient Egypt is that to say, “I read hieroglyphics”. This is very important, a very important thought. And its relevance to writing in ancient Egypt and to hieroglyphics in this language would be huge if it has a special meaning to us. This was really something that is really relevant to the origin and development of other language, especially among the Egyptian people, who were very sensitive about it.
[quote].
These form the language of Egypt. Here is why: The Egyptian written language is both a history of events and a common language. The hieroglyphic of Egyptian is essentially the same as that of all other ancient words. The hieroglyphic of Egyptian is essentially the same as that of all other ancient words. At a very basic level it is only a very old word. It is literally the same word but with a very different meaning. There is no alphabet or language, there is no writing. Just as it does not know what the words you want to say to someone are. What you want to say to someone is what you say they should use. The most remarkable thing about this word is that people will say anything to it, like: “Wow, this is a nice looking woman”. And it actually has very specific meaning because we understand now that something beautiful is here. It is something you can use to put some effort into. The fact that it has a meaning that is completely different from other things that are on the same page is something we have never quite understood as “the meaning behind the words”. As we know that it does not like to be written, that it doesn’t like to be in words they can’t write. We think the meaning of writing has become so much simpler and more fluid. There is no alphabet, there is no writing, everything is at once. Just like any other language it has evolved from an ancient writing system. It uses a certain mathematical system to write letters.
You could begin with the crab that scratches in the sand. The name of the animal is the action or sound it makes, or its colour. The name parents other like meanings belonging to other things, leaving the animal