INTERSECTIONALITY | WRITING PROMPT

A Love Letter to Language

Monthly writing prompt for December, and some thoughts on language and linguistics

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I identify as many things.

My soul is a writer. My physical body is an artist. My heart is a teacher.

But my brain… my brain is first and foremost a linguist.

Why Linguistics?

I stumbled into the field of linguistics as an undergrad through a series of happy accidents, and can remember quite clearly the palpable excitement I felt when I realized this was an academic space I could pursue.

I’d been enamored with language for years at that point, hungrily collecting words and phrases and grammatical constructions like somebody who believed I might be able to talk myself off a deserted island if I had enough off them at my disposal. I still behave that way, to this day.

I gratefully blame my mother for this overwhelming obsession, and her insistence on me learning French as a kid — in addition to the Spanish and English I already spoke — for the doors it would open. French not only fulfilled its intended purpose, but led me to seek out Italian, Portuguese, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Czech…and the countless other tongues I’ve…