It's only words,
and words are all I have
To take your heart away
You might only have
words, but those words are important.
You have to be careful with words. Cockney rhyming slang or highly technical language can do more than just be the words that are spoken. The words, and the accent which is used to pronounce them, may reveal more than intended about the society to which the speaker belongs. That language may be meant to exclude others ( if you are not "in with the in-crowd", you prove that by not understanding the slang of the "in-crowd"), but not being able to use the words of a society or its preferred accent does not mean that you are not trying to be a part of a society.
My maternal grandmother spoke only Polish, but she still considered
herself to be an American. My paternal Irish
ancestors did not learn English because they thought that was the superior culture,
but because they were forbidden to speak Gaelic. I try to remember them and not use words
to keep people out, but to use words to include people and to speak the truth. The important thing is the truth, not the words.
No comments:
Post a Comment