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Analysis Of If Black English Isn T A Language Then Tell Me What Is By James Baldwin

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Author James Baldwin wrote a short story named, “If Black English Isn’t a Language Then Tell Me What Is?” In the story Baldwin argues that Black English is a language not a dialect or improper English. Baldwin talks about how some languages have different variations and are actually different languages. Baldwin also talks about how language is a political instrument and is the most crucial key to identity. Is it true that one’s language and/or dialect can actually identify them as a person? Well Baldwin believes so. In the story Baldwin also states that he believes that if there was not any black people in the United States white people would not sound the same; English is just a purified version of Black English. I believe that people from different areas have different struggles, which would ultimately affect their variation of that language. …show more content…

People from different countries that share the same language cannot understand each other not because they do not understand the language but because their dialect and the way they pronounce certain words effect their interpretation of what is being said. In the text Baldwin states “A Frenchman living in Paris speaks a subtly and crucially different language from that a man living in Marseilles. . .” When using a translator they do not have multiple variations of French there is only one version of French but the difference is not the language but the way they pronounce words (dialect). If a Frenchman in Paris and in Marseilles are not speaking the same language you should be able to specify which type of French you are actually trying to translate. Since you cannot specify a type of French the two men would actually be speaking the same

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In discussing Black English, John McWhorter talks about the theories of the origin of the language. McWhorter talks about how people have made claims that Black English is related and comes from African languages. He also tells how their research on this subject is unreliable and “sketchy.” These people making these claims are outside of linguistics, meaning they practice things such as education and speech pathology. People like Dr. Smith, a teacher at a medical college, suggested that Black English is a mixture of African languages with English, where these African languages have altered English into a new language.

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Baldwin stated that “Language is determined by the person that is speaking it.” The audience is anyone that doesn’t consider “Black English” a language, people that don’t use

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If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? By James Baldwin explains to the reader what black English is and where black English comes from. Baldwin writes about how humans use language as a means of controlling the world around them. Baldwin explains that people may speak the same language in one area of the world, but then people who speak the same language elsewhere are no longer speaking the same language. Baldwin using French as an exampling, Baldwin compares french-speaking people from Quebec to people who live in Paris.

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What does it mean to be a writer? Who or what defines a writer? Is it up to the critics, the readers, or the author’s original intentions? For Richard Wright and James Baldwin, their own authorial intentions define their work. Baldwin identified with Wright through his literature as he was growing up.

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In the essay “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin, he expresses feelings of hate and despair towards his father. His father died when James was 19 years old from tuberculosis; it just so happens that his funeral was on the day of the Harlem Riot of 1943. Baldwin explains that his father isn’t fond of white people due to the racist past. He recalls a time when a white teacher brought him to a theater and that caused nothing but upset with his father, even though it was a kind act. Many events happened to Baldwin as a result of segregation, including a time where a waitress refused to serve him due to his skin color and Baldwin threw a pitcher of water at her.

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“If Black English Isn’t a Language Then Tell Me What Is” In the essay “If Black Isn’t a Language Then Tell Me What Is” (The New York Times, 1979) written by James Baldwin, the author asserts that the African American community has altered the English language into a new language during the last five centuries to accommodate the black experience in American history despite the white’s attempt to submerge it. To begin the essay he makes his argument clear by referencing the alterations the French made to their native language to describe how people will eventually “...evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances…”; furthermore he continues to analyze how the caucasian people of America have only accepted the black language when it came out of a white mouth; he ends the essay by reinforcing his position, elaborating on the racism black’s have faced when they were denied the right to an education unless it was for the white benefit. His liberal purpose is to bring light to the subtle racism that African Americans experience even after the Civil Rights movement and to acknowledge the cultural influence they have in America. His writing appears very personal and intimate like he’s voluntarily opening up to his audience by letting them know of his own struggles as an African American, targeting mostly minorities and people who feel oppressed by white America.

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Righteous Religion James Baldwin, a writer from Harlem, New York, is particularly studied because of how he addresses race in the United States. Though he saw himself as a “witness to the truth,” Baldwin becomes a leader in black freedom particularly in his collection of essays, The Fire Next Time (The Chicago Tribune). In the essays explored in class, “My Dungeon Shook” and “ Letter from a Region in My Mind,” religion is a reoccurring theme that played an integral part in Baldwin’s life. Although the streets would usually be seen as a more dangerous and deteriorating lifestyle than the church; chapters from The Fire Next Time demonstrate that the institution of the black church created an equally negative and lasting impression that mirrored the impact of street life. Though “My Dungeon Shook” focuses less on religion and more on identity, the first paragraph introduces religion with a negative implication attached.

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Language is used to convey a message as well as connect people to a particular culture or ethnicity he or she identifies with. People who share the same language share a bond and pass their history through language. In chapter one of The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom Joanne Kilgour Dowdy speak about growing up in Trinidad and her mother insisting on her speaking in the colonizer's language rather than her native Trinidadian language. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy felt as if her identity was being pushed to the side when she was forced to speak “Colonized English” when she was at school or around the social elite of her community, and felt ridiculed from her peers for speaking proper as if she was white or of the elite social class. Dowdy major concern was how to have the freedom to go back and forth from home, language to the public language without feeling judged from both sides of her

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Language can either separate someone from this larger identity or connect him or her to it. This essay shows that black people in America have been systematically and institutionally marginalized by white society that their creation of separate and distinct language was a necessity, and this essay brings to light the struggles my community ---------- the black community --------- had faced in an effort to break through stereotypes and erroneous assumptions .I personally enjoyed how Baldwin incorporated historical examples into his essay, such as the Irish and the Germans, because it showed me that African Americans were not the only ones who felt marginalized by the way they use

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Baldwin uses an advanced vocabulary throughout the essay, but only uses slang terms when referring to African Americans. By using phrases like “But if I was a "nigger" in your eyes”, he shows the audience what the words culturally imply such as stupidity and ignorance. Since this is

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In A Letter to My Nephew, James Baldwin, the now deceased critically acclaimed writer, pens a message to his nephew, also named James. This letter is meant to serve as a caution to him of the harsh realities of being black in the United States. With Baldwin 's rare usage of his nephew 's name in the writing, the letter does not only serve as a letter to his relative, but as a message to black youth that is still needed today. Baldwin wrote this letter at a time where his nephew was going through adolescence, a period where one leaves childhood and inches closer and closer to becoming an adult.

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The Harlem Renaissance was a development period that took place in Harlem, New York. The Renaissance lasted from 1910 to about the mid-1930s, this period is considered a golden age in African American culture. This Renaissance brought about masterful pieces of music, literature, art, and stage performance. The Harlem Renaissance brought about many prominent black writers such as Richard Wright. Richard Wright is a highly acclaimed writer, who stressed the importance of reading, writing, and words.

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Dialect is defined as, “a variety of a language used by the members of a group” (Merriam-Webster.com, 2018). The use of “black” dialect in the story brings the characters to life, makes them more relatable, and contributes to the theme of racism in a way that other literary devices cannot. Particularly, “The increased use of dialect by black authors, particularly children 's authors, was a sign that the nature of the black experience as they wanted to convey it did not have to rely on traditional forms, and literary devices; that they could treat familiar, realistic ideas and situations using a familiar dialect and relate that idea more effectively” (Wells, 1976, p. 39). From “’Ey, ‘lois!

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Seeing as language is a way of one expressing itself we can connect language to identity. As in order for one to demonstrate itself we have to be able to express our feelings and emotions and we do so through communication. Some characteristics of language is that it's dynamic, meaning that it changes constantly for example, the English people speak now is not the same English that people used to speak hundreds of years before. Language changes and modernizes itself in order to evolve and has many variations through dialects. Different language communities have certain ways of talking that will set them apart from others and those differences are known as dialects.

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