Language And Identity Essay

There are many ways in which we identify ourselves, both on an individual and societal level. From our appearances, to our ideals, there are many things that make up who we are; yet none are as powerful as our language. Language is more than just a form of communication, it is an identify that we create. Therefore, there is no right way to speak a language. The rules currently put in place should act as a guideline not a dictate. Language and identity has been a topic of much debate since the birth of sociolinguistics. Language according to the Oxford Dictionary is, “the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way.” While identity is defined as, “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is '” (Oxford Concise Dictionary). Yet there are two types of identities that need to be addressed, attributed – the identity given to someone by someone else- and claimed identity – the identity people themselves claim. The two are not always the same and can affect how we look at language (google book). Which is why the language people speak, and the language being perceived by others do not necessarily …show more content…
More than national identity, these languages represent the regional identity and culture of the past (Choudhury). Regional identities affect national ones as well and can be seen in the origins of both regional and national language. North Eastern India for example has a very pertinently present identity. When speaking English, their use of accent and the way they structure their sentences, clearly identifies the region of the speaker. For example, a Bodo speaker generally pronounces /p/ as /ph/ as in /phen/ instead of /pen/ (Choudhury). The different regional dialects of Hindi represent the different cultural and social identities as