Re: CHAT: Multi-Lingos

> Date:         Mon, 21 Aug 2000 13:45:57 GMT
> From:         Oskar Gudlaugsson <hr_oskar@...>
> 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.
[dO@marEn s{@gar at: sva@rEd E r{@t]. That was an excellent show --- I
did watch it for the music, but it was very interesting to hear the
languages too. Most Danes thought that the Finns who had Swedish as a
secondary language were the easiest to understand (after the Danish
speakers), because they spoke Swedish in (slow) syllable timing and
without tonal accents.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)