#language identity

[femonomics-blog]

Person First or Identity First Language, and How Does It Make A Difference?

Person First or Identity First Language, and How Does It Make A Difference?

If you work in the social sciences, you have probably heard of a person’s first language. It is often encouraged that this type of language is used the majority of the time. In fact, it has been so ingrained in me, and still is encouraged in my master’s degree, that it is my default way of talking. I must consciously think to use identity first instead of person first. However, recently I have…

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[youmayhavenoquotes]

'English' as such is fictitious. There is no one English, no one monolithic entity with a fixed set of linguistic features.

Kate Burridge & Jean Mulder

[youmayhavenoquotes]

Of all the markers of identity, language is by far the most significant.

Bruce Moore

[whispersinmyghost]

Bilingualism & Orthographic Neurosis

I've noticed something strange about the way I think about making mistakes in English as opposed to Swedish. 

If I make a mistake in English, in spelling or grammar, I register it as just that, a mistake. It stands out as a deviation from standard use or orthography and I correct it, in my head or on paper. 

But I'm neurotic about making exactly the same sort of mistakes in Swedish. When I chat to Swedish folks I follow on Twitter, I find myself obsessively running words through google translate, just to make sure I'm not using a double L where there should only be one, or something equally trivial. 

Thing is, although technically Swedish is my first language (by about 6 months), I've never lived in Sweden and none of my formal education has ever been conducted in Swedish. I learnt it from my parents, we spoke it at home - how I ever learnt to read and write in it remains unexplained. 

So yeah, I'm used to writing in English, I've read more in English and now I use it more often. My vocabulary's wider and I have the confidence of being formally taught the language and how to use it. 

But I think it's more than that. It's not just that I was educated in English, my education happened in English. Ideas and politics and critical thinking and whatnot, have mostly been mediated for me through English. These educational experiences are (whether I like it or not) attached to value - schooling, study, criticism - so when I make a mistake in language, it doesn't threaten my perception of what I'm saying. Even if my ideas are rubbish, I've done so much thinking in English - there's so much 'back up' content that's passed through my brain in English - that when I make a mistake it feels like an inconvenience, not a fundamental flaw in formulation or communication.

In Swedish, not so much. In Swedish I behave as though a simple mistake will go to the very heart of the value or meaning of what I have to say. And, despite the fact that I've been speaking the language my entire life, I'm always watching my back in case I get caught out as not a 'real' speaker.