OCTAVIO PAZ "TRANSPLANTED LANGUAGES"

Octavio Paz's 1990 Nobel Lecture accentuated the issue of transplanted languages and the literature that emerged in a transplanted culture. Latin-American and Caribbean literature is good example of the use of transplanted languages since the influence of European and American cultures is quite pronounced. When people migrate from one place to another or are forced to endure foreign rule, the impact on the language is usually the most marked. Words and concepts are borrowed from other languages and cultures, incorporated in native languages and from this fusion, emerges a language which lacks the beauty and grandeur of the original but is well-understood and even widely accepted by the natives influenced by transplantation. This is what Octavio Paz was referring to when he spoke of transplanted languages and its use in Latin American literature.

Languages are born and grow from the native soil, nourished by a common...
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