Limba Maternă

This creative arts-based inquiry explores an individual case of Mother Language shift and loss through poems and paintings. Language shift is often defined in the Canadian context as the process whereby “individuals abandon their native language as the principal language spoken at home and adopt another” (Sabourin & Bélanger, 2015, p. 727). But is abandon the right verb? And what about adopt? A abandona inseamnă ca ai avut o alegere de făcut. A adopta also means you had a choice and you consciously made it. What if your limba maternă hid in your body, s-a ascuns, out of fear? And what if it still lives inside of you at the cellular level, in your body’s home, adânc, aşteptând momentul potrivit to resurface? These poems and paintings explore the feelings of home as mother tongue, and the effects on identity of gradually losing a first language.