In many ways, language is the root of understanding one’s own existence. Marlene Nourbese Phillip emphasizes this idea by denying English as her “mother tongue”, rather referring to it as her “father tongue”. At face value, the poem highlights the same ideas as Frederick Douglas’s Narrative, including the devaluing of slave’s life through the stripping of his or her family’s culture and practices by changing their names and forcing them to speak English. Phillip’s discontentment in English can be seen as she goes from failing to enunciate “language” to “languish” to finally saying “anguish”. In her eyes, English is associated with pains and sorrow that befell her people in the past.

Upon breaking down the poem further the idea of a “mother” and a “mother tongue” begins to represent more than just a language that Phillip grieves for, but more of the essence of what a mother represents, which is stability. This symbol is apparent as Phillips goes from saying that she has “no mother tongue” to “no mother to tongue”. Though only a one word change, the statement goes from saying she has lost her culture to saying that she has lost her source of comfort and security.

This symbol of the loss of mother parallels the reality Douglas was born into. As a child, he was separated from his mother, which was a common practice for slaveowners to do in order to manipulate a slave through emotional isolation. Much of the practices that went along with slavery often aimed to keep the slaves low in spirits to actively repress any possible mutinies and rebellions amongst their workers. Both works echo the idea that the history behind English in conjunction with slavery is nothing but hardship and forced ideology that the white man’s forced words and culture were worth more than those of the slaves.

In Phillip’s “Discourse on the Logic of Language” the poem focuses mainly on communication and the lack thereof. The repetition that ends up transitioning to new words really emphasizes the continuous conflict between the different cultural languages. “…not a foreign lan lan lang language languish anguish a foreign anguish.” This part of the poem really stood out to me because it shows us the lack of knowledge the slaves had by using the phrase “foreign anguish”. This was a very troublesome transition for slaves because it was not what they were ever used to. There is an evident conflict between finding balance from her culture and the new culture she is experiencing, and for all slaves for that matter. His poem relates to Frederick Douglass in the sense that they are both slaves who had a different culture imposed on them. They were both forbidden to know the lives they came from. He was an oppressed slave who felt lost because ignorance was strongly used towards the slaves. With all this being said, knowledge freed Douglass from being lost in the mindset of being a slave.

               One of the things that relates Phillip‘s poem and Douglass’s book is the musical and rhythmic tone that she puts in her poem. Slaves use songs to express their feelings. As the refrain that Douglass fellow-slaves sing on their way home from the farm: “I am going away to the great   house farm!” This explains the contentment of these people for going home.  Thus Douglass mentions that he really understands the meaning of those words once he becomes free. He could interpret this song by being in the other side. Sometimes our point of views can change depend on which side we analyze a situation. The same condition happens here when Philip wrote this poem.  The language barrier that existed between the slaves and the masters even thought between the slaves themselves Douglass experiences it in the process of learning English. As a child he could not communicate with the white children. As a foreign speaker it is a frustration to be somewhere where people speak a different language. You feel inferior to others and it is easy for others to get round you. As Douglass started to learn how to read and write, he became aware of the false belief that the brain of a black is different from a white. Phillip points out the same thing in her poem, it was discovered by two doctors that all human brains have the same shape. Slaves could have this knowledge once they learn their oppressors’ language.

Valerie Dorisca

Samantha Poon

Professor Hussey

ENG 2850_KTA

NourbeSe Philip’s poem “Discourse on the Logic of Language” powerfully speaks about the issue of mystification and institutionalized racism. The poem begins with what seems to be a chorus where she says “English is my mother tongue, a mother tongue is not my lan-“ Philip does not finish her sentence because as she continues the word “language” transitions to “anguish” which immediately tells us that English causes her anguish. Then she continues to say “English is my father tongue, a father tongue is foreign language, therefore English a foreign language, not a mother tongue.” Given that during slavery, White men, forced their slaves to speak English which was a foreign language to the slaves, that is why Philip also says that “[She has] no mother tongue,” no real identity to herself besides the one that is imposed on her. SImilarily Fredrick Douglass speaks about not having ownership to his identity, that he has no mother tongue to associate with besides what his masters allow him to know. In the very beginning of the narrative he says “by far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs” (Douglass, pg.1) this reflects the idea of how Philip states that English is simply a foreign language. As mentioned before English causes her anguish just like in the case of Fredrick Douglass who felt anguish when he began to learn the foreign language of English. As he continued to learn, become more educated, he may have gained knowledge but he also gained a burden. He learned of the truths behind why white men felt as though they were superior, Douglass learned and finally understood the extent of what it meant to be a slave and immediately sought for freedom.

Fredrick Douglass recalls a point when he is put up for auction amongst other slaves, as well as cattle, “we were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep, and swine” (Douglass, pg.27). Although Douglass and his brethren were subject to physical abuse, he saw that “[there are] brutalizing effects of slavery upon both salve and slaveholder”(pg.27) therefore saying that slavery created monsters in slaveholders, they became so cold and inhumane in the process that they failed to recognize slaves as human beings just like themselves. In Philip’s poem she even mentions a doctor who believed that the brains of white men where more intelligent and much more superior than colored men and women. This belief emphasizes how White men at the time regarded themselves as the dominant race and therefore they could not distinguish between men and women of color and cattle. Philip also states that “the metamorphosis of sound to intelligible words require […] B) a mother tongue, C) the overseers’ whip..” The fact that she mentions “a mother tongue” and “an overseer’s whip” as reason to utter words of intelligence relate to how slaveholders enforce slaves to learn their ways yet punish them if they obtain too much knowledge of the father’s tongue, that being English, their foreign language.

Philips poem takes the physiological aspects of how the tongue works and translate that to mean so much more. She relates the function of the tongue to relate how we has humans can use our tongue, speech, and language for more than communication but to express what we learn, feel, and value. At one point she asks whether the “B) the principle organ of articulate speech or c) the principle organ of oppression and exploitation.” In many case during slavery, even during present times, language is used in ways that offend and most definitely oppresses those who are at the receiving end of it. Fredrick Douglass tells many times in which the tongue has been the enemy of the slaves. He mentions the death of several slaves that he knew to receive punishment even death and as a result there was no justice for their deaths because the slaveholders hold “the principle organ of oppression and exploitation,” whose words better to believe than that of a white man’s, especially the tongue of a slaveholder.

In Philip’s “Discourse on the Logic of language” poem, really emphasizes and draws people’s attentions on the idea of how important it is to speak. The continuous repetition of “I have no mother tongue, no mother to tongue, no tongue to mother to mother tongue me, I must therefore be dumb tongue…” really shows when people are unable to communicate in any form or way between others affects how they interpret themselves. Especially, when people have no idea of their family and their native language really sends out a negative effect on them. It makes them believe anything, it makes them believe what others say must be true, because they do not have anyone else to ask for advice. Which, also causes them to not question, because they believe they are born dumb.

Philip’s quote also connects with Douglass’s Narrative, since Douglass was a slave himself, and slaves has experienced the same thing of being prohibited to know their family members and native language under their master’s control. When Douglass was young, he knew little of who he was or who the women that sometimes comes in the middle of night that lies down next to him. He was completely clueless and spiritless, because of one reason, the prohibition of knowledge. Knowledge is facts and information acquired by education and people’s experience. And that is exactly something the slaveholder didn’t want their slaves to have, because knowledge is the key to not only to speak, but to have a voice and speak up for yourself, and then make others believe in you to follow your footsteps. When people gain knowledge, then they can connect with people. They also start to question, and when they question, it raises awareness, and people will start to take action upon it. Slaveholder’s wanted to keep the slaves as dumb as possible, and make them feel inferior, just so they would work for their slaveowners for free, forever.

The Discourse on the Logic of Language is poem beautifully written by Marlene Nourbese Phillip in which I found to be very intriguing. The constant repetition and the breaking up of certain words such as when Phillip says, “Lan, lan, language, languish, anguish” emphasizes and reflects the lack of knowledge slaves had towards the English language which was very relatable to Frederick Douglas in The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglas. In comparison, Frederick Douglas did not know anything about the English language throughout half of his narrative as well until Mrs. Auld influenced him to do so. However, he had to discretely learn the language and seized every opportunity he possibly could to learn the slightest thing about the English language since many of the masters were opposed of their slaves to getting any education at all in case they overthrew them in power. This idea relates to a statement in Phillip’s poem when she states, “if they can’t speak to each other then they cannot foment rebellion and revolution,” which was exact mentality of the slave owners in The Narrative of Frederick Douglas. Additionally, the poem claims that, “English is a foreign anguish,” which I believe made a direct comparison to the life of Frederick Douglas immediately. Douglas spent most of his life trying to learn the language and suffered immense pain physically, emotionally and mentally to finally acquire the sufficient amount of knowledge of the English language. Nevertheless, there are clearly many similarities between Phillip’s poem and Frederick Douglas’ pursuit in learning the English language.

The verse that Philip repeats with the line “I have no mother tongue, no mother to tongue, no tongue to mother to mother tongue me, I must therefore be dumb tongue…” begins to explore the idea of dehumanization. In this line, the speaker is saying they have no native language to express ones self, no mother to guide ones self, so therefore they must be dumber, that is what slaveholder’s believed and what they used to break slaves. When she is reading the poem, she always returns to this verse to emphasize how dehumanization begins.

In the beginning of Douglass’s Narrative, he does not know much about his own self, such as how old he is, he doesn’t seem to be very connected to his mother since they were separated. Dehumanization begins with isolation leading to a lack of knowledge and language, resulting in not being able to communicate one’s feelings and thoughts. Being illiterate restricts one from having human connection. Slaveholders separated children from there mothers and did not teach them how to read or write because they believed that it would give them power, power to think and feel their own thoughts. For slaves,  “English is a foreign anguish”. They feared that if slaves had this power, the slaveholders would lose theirs.

Both Philip’s poem and Douglass’s Narrative explore and goes through the process of dehumanization.

-Michele Li

The Discourse on the Logic of Language is a poem written by Marlene Nourbese Phillip. It is a unique and creative poem. Philip talks about the importance of language, especially the role of English in her life. She wrote and I quoted “English is my mother tongue. English is my father tongue. A father tongue is a foreign language. Therefore English is a foreign language not a mother language.” The slaves only speak in English because they have to get orders from the slaveholders. In fact, they do not belong to the same society with people who actually use English as their language. Although English should be her mother tongue, it is actually her father tongue. Even Phillip didn’t say anything about her feeling; I could still feel a sense of sorrow and lonely. Language is so significant that we use language to build human connections.

Frederick Douglass recorded his life in his book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. He was a slave who suffered inhumanity treatment from the slaveholders. Besides, he was not allowed to learn languages. He knew the reason why they could not learn a language. When they study a language, they are able to write and read, which means they have the ability to acquire knowledge. Knowledge is the premise of thinking, when the slaves have the ability to think, they are going to fight for freedom. That was the last situation the slaveholders would like to see.

Therefore, there are some similarities between Discourse on the Logic of Language and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Language is a tool for people to express their emotions and thoughts. Although Douglass passed away long time ago, people still feel the existence of him through his words. Meanwhile, we can feel strong emotion of Fillip when she read her poem. Through the weird sounds and structures, I know that language gives her the power to express herself.

Zhao Wang

In Frederick Douglass’s “Narrative of a Life”, Douglass talks about how slaves were deprived of knowledge by not allowing and/or teaching them to learn the language because that would cause interaction among one another, and will ultimately lead to their freedom. This narrative shows that knowledge is power and one can acquire that through language. Slaves were deprived from learning how to read and write as they were growing older because that would cause a sense of competency and independence. Keeping slaves illiterate is a means to keeping them under control by the slaveholders.  Douglass gained awareness when he overhears his master Hugh Auld telling his wife to immediately stop teaching Douglass how to read and write because getting educated destroys them. That’s when Douglass began understanding that learning a language and thus learning to read and write will eventually give knowledge on expressing the prejudice against slavery, a sense of suffering, and realizing that they aren’t just slaves, but humans after all.
Similarly, in Marlene Nourbese Phillip’s poem, “Discourse on the Logic of Language”, Phillip’s shows how vital language can be for someone because it works as a form of expressing oneself. It allows one to have a sense of connection and disclosure. Not being able to learn the mother tongue and forcing to learn the father tongue, which is English and something foreign leaves someone silent and oppressed because it is enforced upon them by their colonial masters. It causes her suffering, agony, and anger because it’s hard to express herself. The narrator searches for her mother tongue in a pursuit for her own cultural identity, which has been depressed because of the colonial ruling.
Both excerpts’ shows the importance of language and how significant it is to know a language that would allow you to feel free, communicate, and express yourself. It allows you to open your eyes to many things, especially gaining realization and self-awareness.

Ekramul Islam