The Death of Language? Team Phoenix- Nina Reyes

If the death of language brings people together and therefore it is a good thing, I think Anzaldúa would disagree with McWhorter’s notion, its a bad thing when language dies. In Anzaldúa’s novel it is implied that not being able to understand each other, pushes people apart, but also brings them together when they are speaking the same language, like when people from the same country or area speak their language, bringing them and their cultures together. If McWhorter read Anzaldúa novel, I would assume that he would disagree with Anzaldúa because it would seem that not being able to understand each other pushes people apart, however, McWhorter does not realize that having that same common ground, that same common language, brings people together, sort of like how Thanksgiving dinner brings a family together and sometimes during that Thanksgiving dinner, the language of English is not spoken. In my family, this reality happens, food not only brings us together, but also language, we get to be ourselves, we get to embrace our culture and it seems like, just for a moment we are no longer in the United States of America, but we are in our homeland, it seems like we are back in our heritage, we are back home. This is the power of the diversity of languages spoken in the United States, the melting pot, and how it brings people together, our differences correlate with one another, thus, persuading us to come together and understand each other. By being able to understand each other, we also form relationships and bonds that cause our diverse languages to grow and also our culture. If we were to only speak one language and one language only, not only will the death of language occur but also the death of diverse heritage, relationships and the death of culture.