Re: OT: semi-OT: bilingual communication

On 24 Jan, Danny Wier wrote:

> I'm reading more on the North Caucasian languages (where I got A LOT of
> ideas for Tech phonology). I understand that in Vladikavkaz, Russia, which
> is on the Chechen-Ingush border, it's common for a Chechen to speak
>Chechen
> to an Ingush, and the Ingush to reply in Ingush, and they understand each
> other enough to hold an everyday conversation.
>
> Is it possible, or practical, for this to happen in the real world for
> speakers of two more different languages?
    My question would be: what's preventing the development
of a pidgin in this case?


> Like I was speaking English to a
> Spanish speaker and he'd be speaking Spanish to me.... ~Danny~
    Sounds like the situation where I work.(We have, among others,
native Spanish speakers as well as native English speakers.)
But, in our case, it is an unwrittten rule of etiquette
that if a speaker of one lang joins a conversation in another lang,
he/she must use the lang of the majority.
Often, out of courtesy, though, the whole converation
will shift to a neutral 3rd lang, (usually Hebrew) as long as
the newcomer is there, reverting back to the original lang
of the conversation when he/she leaves.
    In the case of a one-on-one conversation, both
move to a neutral 3rd lang, usually Hebrew.
    When there are multiple conversations with
people moving from one to another, it can turn into
a real "linguistic ballet"! :-)

Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a

A word is an awesome thing.