Translingual Inheritance tells a new story of the early days of democracy in the United States, when English had not yet become the only dominant language. Drawing on translingual theory, which exposes how language use contrasts with the political constructions of named languages, Elizabeth Kimball argues that Philadelphians developed complex metalinguistic conceptions of what language is and how it mattered in their relations. In-depth chapters introduce the democratically active communities of Philadelphia between 1750 and 1830 and introduce the three most populous: Germans, Quakers (the Society of Friends), and African Americans. These communities had ways of knowing and using their own languages to create identities and serve the common good outside of English. They used these practices to articulate plans and pedagogies for schools, exercise their faith, and express the promise of the young democracy. Kimball draws on primary sources and archival texts that have been little seen or considered to show how citizens consciously took on the question of language and its place in building their young country and how such practice is at the root of what made democracy possible.
"This is the book we've been waiting for. While we have an abundance of publications on translingual communication as a contemporary practice, we haven't understood its workings in the past. Archival documents are difficult to find and interpret. Kimball offers painstaking research, intelligent reading, and imaginative reconstruction of communities and communication in 18th century Philadelphia to
Suresh Canagarajah, Pennsylvania State University
"In her revisionist history of Philadelphia, Kimball uses a translingual approach to envision new interpretations of the city and of our understanding of the founding of the nation. She concludes in part that language diversity was vital to the foundation of the U.S. The book incorporates engaging historical narratives, strong archival materials, effective rhetorical analysis of specific communiti
