An Analysis of How to Tame a Wild Tongue, an Essay by Gloria Anzaldua

In the essay titled "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," Gloria Anzaldua is saying that her language has a lot to do with identity. She speaks many different forms of Spanish, as well as English, and thinks that she is judged by the way she speaks. I thought that many of the ways she spoke were more of different dialects than different languages. I know I speak a different dialect of English a lot, like "that ain't cool", or "yo what's up", but I would not consider this to be a different language (although Anzaldua might).

Anzaldua is relating these different "languages" to her identity, and I think it is important to distinguish the similarities and differences in them. She states "And because we are a complex, heterogeneous people, we speak many languages. Some of the languages we speak are: standard English, working class and slang English, standard Spanish, standard Mexican Spanish, North Mexican Spanish dialect, Chicano Spanish, Tex-Mex, and Pachuco" (166). I think by heterogeneous people she means they have many different attributes and it's harder for other cultures to understand them (meaning their backgrounds and identity, rather than language). Even though she does distinguish some of these to be slang or another dialect, I think they could be considered another form of Spanish (besides Standard English).

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If I were to look up the word language, it might say "communication by word or mouth". To me, this isn't a very convincing definition, because if I were to open my mouth and babble about nothing, it would be considered speaking a language. I believe language is when you speak your own language (with the exception of bilingual people) and that is how you speak regularly to communicate on a basic level. Then there are many different ways of speaking that language to friends, family, etc. that would be considered slang a lot of the time. Anzaldua seems to speak Spanish and English about fifty-fifty. These are her two main languages. Then from there I think she speaks different dialects of these to certain people, depending on the situation.

What brings me to believe this is that later Anzaldua goes on to say that a word or characteristic feature of the English Language borrowed by another language are known as pochismos. She explains "The pocho is an Anglicized Mexican or American of Mexican origin who speaks Spanish with an accent characteristic of North Americans and who distorts and reconstructs the language according to the influence of English" (167). I took four years of Spanish, and I guess why it seems to me as though most of Anzaldua's languages are dialects because it looks the same or similar to me. To me, words like llegados, braceros, pachuco, and agringadas all look like the same language (Spanish) and could fit into any of the categories of languages Anzaldua lists.

I think other things Anzaldua says show that this matter is difficult to debate. Things like "we are your linguistic nightmare..." (169) show a good example of how she is delving into something more than her language, but also identity and defining who we each are as individuals. I think she feels oppressed and she is being judged on the basis of her language rather than who she is as a person. I think she believes that most people view her as less of a person than a standard American speaking person. She was born in America, but her native tongue is Spanish, which makes things like language and identity more complicated for her, and for other people as well. She must feel obligated to speak English, but since her native tongue is Spanish, she must also "please" them too (in the way of speaking the correct language). She may also feel like Spanish people in general feel like she is a traitor for being born here, but her main language is Spanish and that's where her identity can get confused.

Whether Anzaldua speaks many languages, forms of a language or different dialects of a language, it all comes down to being irrelevant in her case. She isn't thinking of these differences (among language or dialect) nearly as much as how it contributes to her identity. There probably is no limit to where one stops being dialect and becomes a language. In the end, it seems like it only matters so much because of the "political" aspect. If there is more than one language spoken inside of one country, then they would probably call it a dialect. If the similar language is spoken in a neighboring country for example, then it's "officially" another language. That's why sometimes different languages can be much more similar than two dialects spoken in the same country. This could be happening in her case, especially with the pressure she feels to speak Spanish and English in the same country. In the end, I guess Anzaldua is speaking both different languages, and dialects. This decision is based on who is being spoken to, where she is speaking, and the situation.

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