Re: Integrating snippets from other languages into your L1

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 01:47:12 -0700, Sai Emrys <sai@...> wrote:
>One thing that's relatively unusual about my speech
>(in English) is that I use the Japanese sentence-
>ending particle 'ne'. It's useful; it
>expresses something in a way that makes English more
>complete. Another example - I use the Russian 'nu?'
>(again, when speaking English).
>
>Aside from common loanwords & creolization - i.e.
>more on the grammatical end, or uncommon loanwords -
>what have you found to cross from the other languages
>you know or have created, into your ordinary
>speech / writing / thought?
Probably the best example is "Say again?", which is what I say instead
of "What?". It comes from Sea Lane English. But is Sea Lane English really
a different language, or is it a genre or register of English?

>From what are unmistakably other languages, I use "Que pasa?" and "n'est-ce
pas?" and "nicht wahr?"and "verstehen Sie?". But these are probably "common
loan phrases".

My father frequently seasoned his English with Deutsche zu hause.  My
Mother occasionally flavored here English with Francais en famille.  (Why
my father, whose grandmother was French, spoke German, whereas my mother,
whose grandmother was German, spoke French, I suppose I'll never know.)  As
a result I was in elementary school before I found out these phrases
weren't English.

I lived in a "Tex-Mex"-speaking area, and everyone peppered their English
with Spanish (more "Spanglish", really).  So I was in college by the time I
found out some of these phrases were considered actually foreign, not
just "borrowed".

FAIK I still have an occasional Cherokee-ism hiding within what I think is
my "English".

> - Sai
>=====================================================
-----
eldin

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