Oldal 79 [79]
OCR
First LANGUAGE Roots: INTRA-SENTENTIAL LITERARY CODE-SWITCHING ‘I guess,’ you shrug, ‘I got so used to Savannah’s freedom that whenever I go back depression just hits me hard—I can’t stay on lockdown for so long anymore.’ ‘So, Savannah is home,’ she says, trying to cheer me up. ‘I guess.’ You take a bite of your tequefio and mutter, ‘but it also doesn’t feel like it 232 Similarly, Anika Pavel uses the Slovak words kolach* and strudel** for the items that the narrator’s mother brings on a visit to the UK: “The sweet aroma of the kolach hit my nose, and in a box wrapped with particular care was my favorite, the strudel.”®> Hernandez and Pavel left their home countries (Venezuela and Czechoslovakia, respectively) when they were 18, Hernandez for economic and Pavel for political reasons. Both now reside in the U.S. The depictions of food in their first languages (Spanish and Slovak, respectively) without providing an explanation evoke the idea that the given items are untranslatable, alluding to a particular intimacy and layers of meaning that can only be captured by the very words themselves. By pointing to the properties of the dishes—e.g. “sweet aroma of the kolach””—and by setting the words into immediate contact with considerations about home or, as in Pavel’s case, a visit from home, their personal bondings to the original words are represented on the level of discourse in addition to the content level. In a similar fashion, the writers Nafisa A. Iqbal and Susmita Paul use their first languages to refer to types of traditional or regional clothing. Like tasting and smelling, touching or looking at clothes as well as putting them on are sensual experiences. As the authors choose their first language for the depiction of traditional clothing (kurta and sari,*’ or salwar kameez and saree”), they emphasize the folkloristic and other-cultural traits of these items and simultaneously evoke their personal, at times intimate, relationships with them that they had cultivated in their original language environments. Especially the occurrences of sari?” and saree*® illustrate how embedded languages can function as signposts for migration histories. Bengali uses a different script than the English language, the Brahmic script. In both texts, 32 Hernandez: Foreigner. Sweet Slovak pastry. Sweet or savory dish in Central and Eastern Europe. Anika Pavel: Freedom, Tint Journal, Issue Spring ’21, 2021, https://tintjournal.com/essay/ freedom, accessed 17 October 2022. 36 Tbid. 3” Nafisa A. Iqbal: Forget Him, Tint Journal, Issue Fall ’20, 2022, https://tintjournal.com/essay/ forget-him, accessed 17 October 2022. Susmita Paul: Flares, Tint Journal, Issue Fall’21, 2021, https://tintjournal.com/flash-nonfiction/ flares, accessed 17 Oct. 2022. 3° A. Iqbal: Forget Him. 40 Paul: Flares. 33 34 35 38 «77 ¢
