Tongues

On Longing and Belonging through Language

Ayelet Tsabari, Eufemia Fantetti, Leonarda Carranza

In this collection of deeply personal essays, twenty-six writers explore their connection with language, accents, and vocabularies, and contend with the ways these can be used as both bridge and weapon. Some explore the way power and privilege affect language learning, especially the shame and exclusion often felt by non-native English speakers in a white, settler, colonial nation. Some confront the pain of losing a mother tongue or an ancestral language along with the loss of community and highlight the empowerment that comes with reclamation. Others celebrate the joys of learning a new language and the power of connection. All underscore how language can offer both transformation and collective healing.

Tongues: On Longing and Belonging through Language is a vital anthology that opens a compelling dialogue about language diversity and probes the importance of language in our identity and the ways in which it shapes us.

With contributions by: Kamal Al-Solaylee, Jenny Heijun Wills, Karen McBride, Melissa Bull, Leonarda Carranza, Adam Pottle, Kai Cheng Thom, Sigal Samuel, Rebecca Fisseha, Hege Anita Jakobsen Lepri, Logan Broeckaert, Taslim Jaffer, Ashley Hynd, Jagtar Kaur Atwal, Téa Mutonji, Rowan McCandless, Sahar Golshan, Camila Justino, Amanda Leduc, Ayelet Tsabari, Carrianne Leung, Janet Hong, Danny Ramadan, Sadiqa de Meijer, Jónína Kirton, and Eufemia Fantetti.

Table of contents

• Tongue-Tied
• A Bird in My Hands
• Pimashkogosi: Catching Language
• English Baby
• Lengua Materna
• Newborn
• Language Is the Fluid of Our Collective Bodies
• Love and Other Irregular Verbs
• Say Something In Your Language
• Gender Fluent
• How to Say Banana in Kiswahili
• The Seven Grandfathers and Translations
• Finding My Voice
• Comfort Language
• What Are You? A Field Study
• Ye Kam
• Dear English Language
• It’s Just a Figure of Speech
• Disappearance/Muteness
• The Reach
• Release My Tongue
• Speak My Tongue
• Moedertaal
• Standing in the Doorway
• Five Stages of Language Loss
• Holding My Tongue