Can a language or identity be taken away from one group because another group or person can speak it with fluency (who is not native to the land where the language is spoken) and what does that say about language diffusion and dialects
maybe there's something in the idea of "occupying language"
• Explore the concept of colonization and connect that to the impact of colonization of language. Use any source here (could be article/research paper)
• Talk about the middle east in general (ottoman empire/ Britain etc- and golden/dark ages)
• Talk about how people preserved aspects of their culture to be able to preserve that identity
Connect these points to thou shalt not speak my language, use from that text and try to connect kilito’s writing to the argument (a helpful quote could be paragraph 1 of page 92).
• Is Kilito’s intense reaction due to the past (colonization in the middle east)
• What does this say about globalization
• do certain groups have "rights" to languages and, if we apply that to the modern day, is globalization and the speaking of different languages then a form of occupation ?
• Can language create a power dynamic?
Connect to my personal experience: growing up as an arab I was told that Arabic numbers were actually English numbers and these numbers were stolen from us, so we were taught to refer to English numbers as Arabic numbers.
• What does that mean, is it a reaction? Is it like a passed on “protest”, how is it related to the main argument of the essay.
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