Re: CHAT: Multi-Lingos

>From: Mike Adams <abrigon@...>
>Subject: Multi-Lingos
>Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 20:22:06 -0800
>
>It can be fun to hear someone speak in one lingo, and the person they
>are talking to answer in another. It can be interesting..
<commencing rant...>

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. So Swedish and Norwegians just speak their own to each other
without any discomfort.

Actually, a whole TV show was based on this; "Kontrapunkt", an
inter-Scandinavian (including Iceland and Finland) competition in knowledge
of classical music. The host was from Southern Sweden, speaking his own
peculiar Skaane dialect; the judge was Danish, speaking his own language
just as he'd do to a fellow countryman; the contestants spoke in their own
languages, with Iceland using Danish and Finland using Swedish; no English
was allowed (or at least was not heard). Then, audience from all over the
Nordic world enjoyed the show with the multiple variations on their
mother-tongue, "Skandinavisk". I always watched it, having no interest in
the music and the competition itself, just enjoying the interplay of related
dialects and languages.

Also, Scandinavians often agree to speak in a kind of common tongue,
"Skandinavisk". While working in tourism in Iceland, I've had people come to
me or call and ask first if I speak "Skandinavisk". I immediately say yes
and we begin; speaking this "language" involves modifying whichever Nordic
language you speak to make it as comprehensible as possible, avoiding any
localisms or idiosyncracies. No two persons speak the same Scandinavian.
People have had long conversations this way, including me. I'd like sometime
to see a standard version of this lingo, actually. Then we could kill, once
and for all, the use of English among Scandinavians (which is also common).

Another example is the Chinese. I've seen people speaking Cantonese and
being replied in Mandarin both in front of me and in TV. Plenty of
cross-language activity there.

Oskar
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