Mother Tongue as Shibboleth in the Literature of Canadian Mennonites
Abstract
Even as certain Canadian Mennonite writers objectify (and so appear to threaten, and even subvert) the conventions and rituals that sustain the Mennonites' centuries-old identity as "a people apart," many of them employ linguistic devices that function to endorse and support the Mennonites' exclusivistic culture -- characterized by the affirmation of the insider and suspicion of the outsider. Indeed, through the persistent use of a linguistic discourse that often only "insiders" can understand -- by their use, that is, of mother tongue (German and Low German) -- these writers maintain, and perhaps even extend, the barriers that separate the Mennonites' minority culture from the contemporary social order.Published
1988-06-06
How to Cite
Tiessen, H. F. (1988). Mother Tongue as Shibboleth in the Literature of Canadian Mennonites. Studies in Canadian Literature, 13(2). Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/8085
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