Mother Tongue

In the text "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan, she talks about the exposure of different types of English. Whether it is the English spoken in school, or her own "language of intimacy" with her mum and her husband.

That is something I would like to focus on in this post. "Language of intimacy". What does this mean? Personally, I feel like it means it's a form of communication only you and someone else communicate in. It does not matter whether it is a code language or, as Amy Tan has mentioned, "simple" or "broken" English. As long as it is a form of language you and someone else share between each other, it is "intimate".

How do I relate to this though? English is a language I grew up with since I can remember. You may remember that I mentioned this in my introductory blog post. However, my parents learnt English in school, thus making it their second, and in my mum’s case, third language. A few weeks back I saw a video which describes phonetics. In this video, they explain how babies are able to adapt phonetics for any language. Once they reach a certain age though, it becomes increasingly difficult. This is exactly what I notice when I hear my parents speak English. They are so used to German pronunciations, that they make the “th” occasionally sound like a slight “z” sound (The —> Zé). It is not as “bad” as it may sound, but it is noticeable. If you hear them speak you will know they are German.

Back to what the post is supposed to be about. “Language of intimacy”. Whenever I am with my parents and it is necessary to speak English to someone, I will genuinely shift into a slight German accent. I notice this and it is very obvious to me. But I do not change it, because I know it is something I share with my parents. Not only this, but my brother and I share something as well. Since we lived in Uganda for most of our “developing” years, we have adopted an “Ugandan-esque” accent whenever we speak with each other. We are not trying to imitate anyone, it is just something we do and something we are used to.

To me, these are choices I like to keep special. I love being able to communicate with my brother the way I do. I also think it is really interesting to see how our brains adapt to different “Englishes” when we are with other people.

But that is all I got to say about this. How do you feel about “language of intimacy”? Do you communicate a “special” way with only one or two people? Let me know, I am always curious about this!