Language Module: Writing Skills I

Lecturer: Beatriz Lorente

The evolution of linguistic Darwinism in R. S. Thomas’ “The

Old Language”

AS 2022

Daniela Vázquez Sánchez

Länggassstrasse 93, 3012 Bern

daniela.vazquezsanchez@students.unibe.ch

21-117-395

Date of submission: 5th of January 2023

Number of words: 865

Preamble

Dear Bea,

I tried to show the evolution of linguistic Darwinism but I what I found difficult to do, was to
maintain focused on that and not in showing other different aspects. To make it clear, I hope I
managed to use the lens well while at the same time highlighting the textual evidence I
presented. What I think I definitely learnt was to at least try to follow a narrative thread and
also to set the main idea in the first place and then give more detailed information. Thank you
for your feedback.

(92 words)
Table of contents

1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1

2 Evolution of linguistic Darwinism ...................................................................................... 1

2.1 Alienation from mother tongue ................................................................................... 1

2.2 Abandonment and selection of languages ................................................................... 2

2.3 Adaptation and uncertainty for the new generation’s mother tongue ......................... 2

3 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 2

4 Works cited ......................................................................................................................... 3

 The evolution of linguistic Darwinism in R. S. Thomas’ “The Old Language”

1 Introduction
In modern colonialism, languages are categorized according to their ‘importance’, in which
dominant languages are at the top and subordinate languages at the bottom. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
defines linguistic Darwinism as “the extreme product of the hierarchy of languages, where the
growth of a dominant language is dependent on the death of other languages” (14) and posits
that linguistic Darwinism leads to the loss of the inferior languages. The way the colonization
builds up linguistic Darwinism and buries the native and, ultimately, the ‘old language’ of the
colonized people matches the parallel alienation from the persona’s mother tongue, suppressed
as an inferior language, in R. S. Thomas’ “The Old Language”. In the poem, R. S. Thomas
illustrates the linguistic Darwinism evolution through three stages: alienation of a mother
tongue, abandonment of said language, and adaptation phase in which those affected grow a
feeling of uncertainty for the future. He achieves that by rhetorical questions, addressed to
England, that produce desperation throughout the persona’s experience for the destiny of young
children.

2 Evolution of linguistic Darwinism

2.1 Alienation from mother tongue

The persona introduces the first stage of linguistic Darwinism as the alienation from their
mother tongue, caused by something England did, portrayed as estrangement and hostility
towards the persona’s mother language, which eventually results to be offensive before the new
ideas of a new language. The beginning of the poem addresses a personified England and
accuses it with anger and pain of having done something wrong in “England, what have you
done […]” (l.1), whereas the word “stranger” combined with “to my lips” (l.2) suggests the
persona has a sense of threat or fear of “the speech” (l.1) their “fathers used” (l.2), which can
be interpreted as the persona’s mother tongue. This unfamiliarity is what might reveal a
language hierarchy taking place, illustrated as the “new thoughts” (l.4) of a new language and
as a mother tongue turned into an “offence to the ear” (l.3), a condition that would lead to an
upcoming alienation. Instead of depicting an inheritance of their mother tongue, the persona
leaves a feeling of concern for fitting the “abiding tune” (l.4), symbolizing a language to be a
melody that will last long.

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2.2 Abandonment and selection of languages
The second part of the poem describes a phase of abandonment that could be compared to a
selection of languages and how the course of time sets aside an inferior language within the
hierarchy of languages, as a stage of linguistic Darwinism. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o posits that
“languages can grow, but only on the graveyard of others” (14), indicating that, in the
colonialism dynamic, the languages at the bottom remain unused and eventually lost and dead.
In the next lines, the persona not only goes onto demand an answer from England with “Answer
me now” (l.5), moreover, this second part illustrates the passage of time and details an
abandoned workshop that “stands idle” (l.6) and contains tools covered with “thick dust” (l.6),
thus resembling a non-transmitted language that is forgotten and left behind. The persona also
describes the “seams in the wood” with the adjective “unquarried” (l.8) and matches with it a
similarity to how their old language has not been dug out anymore in the persona’s life.

2.3 Adaptation and uncertainty for the new generation’s mother tongue
A final stage of linguistic Darwinism can be seen in the third part of the poem. The persona,
who already coped with the loss and death of their ‘old’ inferior mother tongue, shows a
growing concern for what the future generations will speak as their mother language and alludes
to an adaptation phase that people who lost their mother tongue have to endure. In this last part,
the persona poses another rhetorical question to England: “and who shall renew its brisk
pattern?” (ll.9-10) and establishes a link of the words “renew” and “brisk” to the upcoming
“when spring wakens the hearts of the young children to sing” (ll.10-11). Those sentences
connect and attribute youth and renewal to a new generation that still will face or is already in
the stage of losing their ‘old’ language, as part of a final adaptation stage in the linguistic
Darwinism. Additionally, “sing” (l.11) involves a speech performance that can be interpreted
as a metaphor for the act of speaking and brings the attention back to the “abiding tune” (l.4)
of the first part of the poem, portraying that tune or melody as a language. Following this
metaphor, the persona concludes, by the final rhetorical question “what song shall be theirs?”
(l.11), expressing a feeling of desperation and uncertainty for the future adaptation of those
young children and what they will speak.

3 Conclusion
“The Old Language” explores different stages of what Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o identifies as the
extreme endpoint of a linguistic hierarchy: the death of languages through linguistic Darwinism,
which evolves by its rhetorical questions to England throughout the poem from portraying the
persona’s alienation from an ‘old’ language, goes through the selection of languages, while at

2
the same time creates a growing concern for the upcoming generations. The people who speak
an inferior language in a colonial context deal with the consequences of a language hierarchy
by which the absence of their mother tongue causes them to experience desperation for what
the future holds and for how they will adapt to their new reality.

(865 words)

4 Works cited
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. “The Challenge - Ndaraca ya Thiomi: Languages as bridges.” English
language as hydra: its impacts on non-English language culture. Ed. Vaughan
Rapatahana and Pauline Bunce. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2012. 11-18.

Thomas, Ronald S. “The Old Language.” Collected Poems 1945 - 1990. London: J.M. Dent,
1993. 25.