Community and the Developement of Language

Learning language and communicating is important to be an active part of a community and sub communities will use the collective language as well as their own idiosyncratic slang. This is how groups create a sense of place, a narrative to describe the world and their experiences in it.(Tuan,Y 1991) There are several languages or pidgins created by groups that have been denied communication ether through intention or inability. Isolated communities create ways of communicating such as the gumboot dance in South Africa(Kuttainen,V 2015), however the one I'll find most interesting is the development of ISN showing how language is necessary for communities and how being able to create a narrative of the world is equally important, such that a group of isolated children created a whole new language.

In Nicaragua deaf children were usually isolated and had little way to communicate, however in 1977 a school for deaf children was created which quickly increased to some 400 students in two campuses. Their teachers tried to teach them basic Spanish letter sign language, but the children had trouble adapting to this form of sign. The teachers however noticed that the children took elements of sign and quickly created a way to communicate easily with each other but not to their instructors, who then asked for outside help. In 1986 an American linguist, Judy Kegl, observed the children and realised they had begun to create a new language, the first time it had been observed in history.(Osborne, L 1991)(Nicaraguan_Sign_Language, n.d)

Child tells the story of Barbar in ISL(link)

Though internet users are not denied language in the same way others have been like other communities they quickly create slang and due to the unique uses of language they create a sense of community and place, defining their internet fiefdoms. Facebook hosts many communities and can be conceptualised as an empire with many smaller countries within it and if the people became isolated in their groups they would also develop their own language like the children in Nicaragua.

References

Kuttainen, V(2015). BA1002 Week 5 lecture notes [pdf] retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file?cmd=view&content_id=_1996330_1&course_id=_69740_1

Osborne, L (1999) A Linguistic Big Bang retrived from http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/19991024mag-sign-language.html

Taylor-Adams, A (2012) Languages 101: Creoles, pidgins, and patois Retrieved from https://polyglossic.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/languages-101-creoles-pidgins-and-patois/

Yi-Fu Tuan Language and the Making of Place: A Narrative-Descriptive Approach

Annals of the Association of American Geographers
Vol. 81, No. 4 (Dec., 1991) , pp. 684-696

Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2563430

Nicaraguan Sign Language In Wikipedia retrieved 08/28/15 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaraguan_Sign_Language

Image

http://ark143.org/not/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Nicaraguan-Sign-Language.jpeg