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You are not a real polyglot if... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5224 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 137 of 299 22 October 2013 at 2:59pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'm not sure that code-switching is the right term here. When people of different dialects meet, there is usually some form of linguistic accomodation. Both parties are aware that not everybody has the same frame of semantic references, so they will tend to modify certain aspects of their speaking - vocabulary and even pronunciation -to make things easier for the other persons. There is also the fundamental question of how well to speakers of the so-called same language but from different countries and cultures really understand each other. It's not just a question of getting used to the accent, It's more about culture, history, geography, etc. I question how well a Spaniard who has never lived in Mexico can really understand a conversation between two Mexicans. I'm not arguing that Quebec French and French French or Mexican Spanish and Castillian Spanish are different languages, although some people do make this argument. It's just that mutual intelligibility is not that simple. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5128 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 138 of 299 22 October 2013 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Given that I, who is not even Spanish, have little to no problems understanding a Mexican, a Cuban or someone from Ecuador, I feel pretty certain that most Spaniards would too. There are always some different words for the same things, or words for things you do not know from one country to another. Coche and ordenador, is carro and computadora in Peruvian, coger is inoffensive in Spain, but not a word I would use lightly with an Argentinian, and in Latin America there are heaps of fruits that I do not know from Spain - but I could not really say that this hinders understanding. I would rather have any Latin_American dialect you could throw at me, than try to read or understand spoken Vågå-dialect (middle of Norway, from the valley of Gudbrandsdalen). THAT is something which I cringe when I am exposed to. And there is no doubt that it is Norwegian... It just sounds like it is Martian :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5224 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 139 of 299 22 October 2013 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Note that I said "between two Mexicans.".I don't want to make a big deal out of this, but the point I want to emphasize here is that it's not a problem of sounds or even dialectalal words here or there. It's more an issue of "what" they are referring to explicitly or implicitly. We all do this in our respective languages. When we talk to other native speakers, we can assume a common knowledge of many things. For example, we'll refer to the names of certain stores, supermarkets, drugstores, department stores, etc. We'll use abbreviations and contractions. The name of the neighbourhood where I was born or live evokes certain associations. The school you attended says something about your background. Names of politicians, political parties, celebrities, the titles of popular songs, all of these things have certain meanings. I think that the Spaniard who has spent a few years in Mexico will much better "understand" our two Mexicans than will the Spaniard who has never been to Mexico. I remember a dinner here in Montreal where I was chatting with an Englishman when he suddenly realized that the fellow across the table was also from the same part of England. When they started chatting, I could hardly believe my ears. Their accents changed, their rate of talking speeded up and, above all, I couldn't follow what they were talking about. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4416 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 140 of 299 22 October 2013 at 5:12pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Some people say that Scots is a language in its own right while others maintain it is merely a heavy dialect of English. The waters are muddied by the fact that few people today actually speak the auld Scots of the past. Most Scottish people use Scottish English when talking to each other, which is a dialect albeit one peppered liberally with traditional Scots vocabulary and terms.
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| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5128 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 141 of 299 22 October 2013 at 5:19pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I do admit that any language spoken between two native speakers of a determinate group can be extremely difficult to understand. When I needed to learn to drive again 8 years ago, all the other pupils were 18 years old boys, and to my great surprise, I could hardly understand what they were saying. They spoke so fast, and with such a sloppy pronunciation, that it felt like a different language. And they were boys raised in my neighbourhood. So as a general statement, I would agree that any given group can have their own way of speaking which makes it hard to catch what they say for anyone outside of the group. I am not quite sure where that leads us in this discussion though. :-) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4622 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 142 of 299 23 October 2013 at 1:48am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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You only have to try to follow the language of the two young men in "Y Tu Mama
Tambien", or some of the scenes in "Amores Perros" to know how difficult Mexican Spanish could be to a non-Mexican. I was studying Spanish reasonably intently when I watched both of those films, and without subtitles, I would have been lost. And I could well imagine very colloquial, slangy English defeating many non-native speakers, and very colloquial slangy Scottish English would probably defeat me a lot of the time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| HMS Senior Member England Joined 4901 days ago 143 posts - 256 votes Speaks: English* | Message 143 of 299 23 October 2013 at 4:40am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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" Not here at HTLAL? I may be wrong, but I can't recall people making claims
about various dialects of any language." I've seen one or two 'Lowland Scots' listed under languages known on this website. Are all Arabs polyglots? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4416 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 144 of 299 23 October 2013 at 9:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Some people would argue that Lowland Scots (or Lallans) is indeed a language in its own right. It's not to be confused with Scottish English, which is what most people in Scotland speak nowadays. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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