There is no way to overestimate the centrality of soil in Heidegger’s philosophy of Being, soil being more than dirt on the ground but a rootedness in the world that requires both dwelling and language. This is expressed most vividly in Heidegger’s 1960 lecture “Sprache und Heimat,” where he concretizes the notion that language is “the most intensely granted inculcation of the homeland.” Hence, according to Wolfson, “we should no longer speak of ‘language and homeland’ but rather ‘language as homeland.’”

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