“Language not only creates the contours of identity, it also may set up the conditions for other kinds of inclusion and exclusion, belonging and not belonging, success and failure… Language gives meaning to social structures, identity-creating and oppressive ones.” Benjamin Baez
Humans have multiple identities that intersect with each other. The concept of intersectionality, as we pointed out in our previous articles, was for the first time described by Dr. Kimberlè Crenshaw, according to whom, certain individuals face multiple and intersecting forms of structural discrimination. In this article, we will focus on the linguistic aspects of intersectionality, on language as one of the multiple factors that build identities, on language barriers and intersectionality related language issues.
What is identity? Which identities intersect when people are categorized? What is the role of language in the development of identity and cultural identity in particular? What is a language barrier?. Identity is who we are, our individuality, the condition of being a certain person. In the social sciences, identity is defined as the way that individuals label themselves as members of a particular group. We can speak about social identity, gender identity, cultural identity, religious identity, national identity and many other identities.
Language is one of the most essential dimensions of identity, a key component and medium of identity construction. Its linkage to multiple social groups means that language is by nature intersectional. Language is intrinsic to the expression of culture and, for that, a fundamental aspect of cultural identity. Sometimes the language sphere is implicitly subsumed in the categories of race or ethnicity, but racial, ethnic, and linguistic identities, despite being interlocked, are different and not interchangeable. For instance, language issues can be very different from racial or ethnic issues: somebody can be discriminated because of the skin colour, but not because of the language skills and vice versa. To understand an identity dimension it’s necessary to have some notion of how it intersects with other dimensions of the identity.
Language is the means by which we transmit and express our culture and its values. Words and language have the power to define and shape the human experience. Language plays an important role in the way identities are formed and protected, including those that are intersectional. Language influences interpersonal relations and differences in language varieties and identities will also shape the relationship between groups, particularly in globalized societies. A language barrier is any linguistic limitation that creates confusion or prevents comprehension. A barrier could refer to national and cultural languages, but it may also include specialized knowledge or speech impairments.
Language barriers limit both the capacity of comprehension and the ability to communicate, people may feel inadequate, shameful and frustrated for not being able to understand and share simple ideas. Language barriers can make difficult simple tasks in daily life; even social interactions can be compromised. Issues from language barriers can occur on a global scale or on a community-based level and can affect the quality of life for all those involved. For instance, immigrants who settle in a country where a different language is spoken, face unique challenges and have to handle matters of personal and cultural identity. The circumstances can get even more challenging when dominant culture in the host country underestimates the native language of the immigrants. Also, their language learning process intersects with socially constructed boundaries such as political, economic, and linguistic hierarchies.
Crenshaw, the intersectionality pioneer, is one of the first and only English-speaking authors using intersectional approach to denounce what she calls “monolingualism.” In her work, she presented cases of denied shelter services in the USA to women with limited English-language skills and the shelter’s lack of multilingual personnel. Language barriers are often the most significant obstacles to receiving services. Crenshaw questions the logic of seeing language non-accessibility as an individual issue, a perspective that leads to fault specific people (victim-blaming) instead of perceiving the systemic obstacles preventing these people from accessing the same support and services as others.
This is applicable in every context where insufficient language skills could be a serious accessibility problem and where a system of structures, institutions, and beliefs mark a specific language as the norm. In those contexts, the power language is the standard by which people who do not speak it are judged, discriminated against, and excluded. A person who does not master the predominant language may experience difficulties or be unable to access services like health care, find housing or a job, or simply manage the numerous forms of communication that are part of daily life. They not only face racism in their job searches, but their language skills can make the difference between job searches that are relatively easy, difficult, or sometimes nearly impossible.
Instead of interpreting immigrants limited participation as “language difficulties” and leaving it up to them to learn to understand and speak the normative language with more ease , we need to reflect about how institutions and social organizations might be reconsidered to take into consideration a variety of people language skills. In other words, linguistic power relations intersect with ethnic and racial power relations. Linguistic power relations affect the lives of the people who cannot speak the predominant language, particularly those already marginalized, including poor and working-class people, immigrants, and others.
As a result, the experience of racism and immigration can vary also according to language skills. It is crucial to develop an ethics of responsibility that will help us reconsider intersections and solidarity between people who speak the power language and people who don’t. We should also reconceptualise language-based communication difficulties not as the problem of the linguistic minority, but instead as resulting from the linguistic majority’s systemic monolingual perspective, norms, structures, and institutions.
Giudi Aligi
References:
MSVU Mount Saint Vincent University, Atlantis (2017)
Applied Linguistics Review, Tulay Caglitutuncigil Martínez (2015)
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/applirev-2015-0011/html
The relationship between language and identity. The use of the home language as a human right of the immigrant,
Lourdes C. Rovira (2008)
https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/4070/407042009004.pdf
Overcoming language barriers to communication, Brandi Gratis (2022)
https://www.typetalk.com/blog/overcoming-language-barriers-communication/
Issues on language barriers, Dianne Heath (2017)
Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Megan E. Birney1, Janin Roessel2, Karolina Hansen, Tamara Rakić (2020)
