Re: CHAT: Multi-Lingos

Oskar Gudlaugsson wrote:

> Have you seen Scandinavians? I've commonly heard Danish and Swedish speak to
> each other using their own respective languages. Norwegian and Swedish have
> such blurred boundaries that I usually have trouble defining dialects from
> the border.
That's because the border runs north and south, whereas the dialect isoglosses
run east to west mostly.

A friend of mine reported thus:  A friend of *his* came up to him and started
(for some unknown reason) speaking to him in Spanish.  They both spoke English
natively.  Not knowing any Spanish, he naturally (sic) replied in Hebrew, and off
they went, conducting a whole conversation.  Since nobody was around who
spoke both Spanish and Hebrew, the *full* content of this conversation will
never be known.

--

Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
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Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau,           || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.            -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)