Role-Shifting & Linguistic Performance through the Works of Zora Neal Hurston

     

    Zora Neal Hurston was a profound and unparalleled Black female author of the twentieth century. She is famous for works such as Their Eyes Were Watching God and Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick, both of which highlight African American Vernacular English in the south. Why is it necessary for this language to be just as recognized and valorized? Because it is a crucial component to our country's social and literary history. Today, there is racist discourse that is still running rampant in conversation with Black English. It is classified as not being "grammatically correct" or "standard English," especially when regarding Black youths in the education system. Contrary to this symptom of systematic racism, this is a language that is alive and well and here to stay. 

    In regards to today's conversation, Ben Rampton defines “situational code-switching as a relatively routine ‘contextualization cue’, in which speakers introduce (and recipients accept) a new but fairly familiar and accessibly definition of the situation.” (Coupland & Jaworski 293) In regards to the specifics of Hurston’s role as a writer, her circumstances at one point are what contributed to her apparent “passivity.” While working in New York, she had a wealthy white benefactor who always sought to control the "Black narrative" she wanted to be written. This was a direct assault on language and the depiction of African American artists. As a result, this caused the prominent author to play different "roles" in her career in order to financially survive. Like many starving artists, Hurston needed to subsist in a competitive world that wasn't designed for her. While many would admire her for her perseverance, her actions supported the notion of “strategic essentialism” as described by Danielle Fosler-Lussier: “…a disempowered people’s temporary use of stereotypes about themselves to promote their own interests—in this case, to guard a valued heritage against a specific act of appropriation.” (Fosler-Lussier 79) This upset her fellow African American authors and artists of the time, for they felt she was catering to the white audience, the one that was profiting off of their work. 

    Their Eyes Were Watching God finally reemerged within classrooms, giving her a newfound platform and stage for her narrative. When the protagonist Janie and her husband Joe (who is the newly elected mayor of Eatonville) are speaking before a crowd, an onlooker asks: “And now we’ll listen tuh uh few words uh encouragement from Mrs. Mayor Starks.” (Hurston 43) Her husband responds: “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home.” (Hurston 43) Throughout this portion of the novel, the townspeople look up to Joe not just as a mayor, but consider him to be Godlike, their "savior." It’s almost as if the town is referencing to the “naïve Black person” looking for anything they can get in terms of settlement and a good life. Despite his Joe's detestable behavior, he is always lauded and worshipped as this biblical figure. And portraying the everyday working Black person as desperate and naïve will naturally cause for criticism and reevaluation of her work from the Black perspective. 

Hurston was an unparalleled author, anthropologist, and literary visionary during her time, and continues to be in our high school and college classrooms. Despite social issues within her own community, and Hurston’s apparent passivity, she was a visionary Black female author that did what she needed to survive and create. She highlighted a language that still receives so much criticism and disdain to this day, and reminds her audiences that validity and relain of African American Vernacular English. 

The Celtic Influence in the English Language.

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            For centuries it has been believed that the Celtic languages had very little influence on the English language. Of the sixteen Celtic languages that have existed, there are only six left: Irish, Manx, Scottish, Breton, Cornish, and Welsh. Knowing that there were so many different versions of the Celtic languages, it makes sense that some of those languages made an impact on the ever-evolving English language from the fifth century to the present day. The more apparent languages that have influenced English are German, Danish, French, and Latin. Still, the Celtic languages have been wholly dismissed by historians claiming that the Anglo-Saxons would never stoop so low to take on a common language. While conducting my research on the topic, I found that previous scholars from the past century had very similar views to Otto Jespersen, who did not view the Celtic languages in a kind light. A book called The Celtic Roots of English, written by Markku Filppula et al. uses many examples of the kind of thinking that was put forth in the early twentieth century:

        “We now see why so few Celtic words were taken over into English. There was nothing to induce the ruling classes to learn the language of the inferior natives; it could never be fashionable for them to show an acquaintance with that despised tongue by using now and then a Celtic word. On the other hand, the Celt would have to learn the language of his masters and learn it well; he could not think of addressing his superiors in his own unintelligible gibberish.”  

 This view and the view of other scholars is called the ‘Germanist View’, where the belief holds to this day that the Anglo-Saxons wiped out the native British and made the women slaves and wives, intending to purify the new country that they had taken over. 

           The belief that the Celtic languages made little to no impact on English besides place names and surnames was not challenged or looked at more closely until the middle of the twentieth century. The new challenges to the Germanist views are highly intriguing, stating that there is archeological evidence that the native British were not wholly extracted but that there was a much more peaceful transition that took a few thousand years. The archeological findings are crucial in the new line of questioning as to why earlier scholars were so determined to have their views put forth as absolute truth. The population of Anglo-Saxons was far fewer than that of the natives when they first arrived in England, so massive immediate extinction of the native British was highly unlikely and has been proven to be untrue. With that said, there was a period of bilingualism between the Anglo-Saxons and native British, “There must have been at least some degree of close relationship and intermarriage, through which British personal names were taken into Anglo-Saxon” (Filppula et al.). Knowing that personal names and place names have been a part of the English language for some time now, more and more evidence is coming to light that the Celtic language may have played a much more significant role in the English language that was once believed. The Celtic influence on English still exists and can be found in more regional dialects of England, specifically the North and Southwest regions. 

           

            An example that has been widely researched and discussed is the word ‘do.’ The Periphrastic DO has only been found in the Celtic languages and does not originate from any other language. ‘DO’ was put in place for questions, negatives, an “emphatic” contexts. There has also been a lot of work on the Celtic Hypothesis and a host of words where their origins are still being debated or have not been given a place to settle. 

The idea that Celtic languages had an influence on English is still relatively new, and there is a lot more research to be done. The scholars who have scratched more than the surface still update their findings as new theories and evidence come to light. I think this idea is fascinating and could drastically change the way we see the world and its languages. For linguists to pursue this line of work and prove the old research was seemingly misled and came from less evidence and from more of a personal viewpoint is very fitting with the ideologies of today’s world.