Re: Ruairi: Irish, German or Yorkshire?

Julian Day wrote:
"Jo Lonergan" <jolonergan@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:89kg33hrtk00kf468uogdcreje1pknrr3t@xxxxxxxxxx

On Tue, 01 May 2007 18:48:15 +0100, Serena Blanchflower
<nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


I had the strong impression, from Brian's brief visits, that Ruairidh
didn't speak any significant amount of English, presumably until they
came back to Ireland. For most of his life, Siobhan was living with
Dieter, so they probably spoke German at home and his child minder was
a German girl. This would certainly support the suggestion that he
would have an Irish accent, possibly tinged with German.

I'd still expect Siobhan to speak to R. in English, especially as
she's a language-oriented person, and must know what an enormous
advantage it is to grow up truly bilingual. If Dieter and the child
minder spoke to him in German, that would be perfect.

I always speak to babies (and cats) in grownup English, and they
understand me perfectly. They're much better at langages than we are.
Babies, that is. Cats seem unable to understand certain concepts in
any language.


I'm not sure who it was who said:

"I speak French to my ambassadors, English to my accountant, Italian to my mistress, Latin to my God, and German to my horse."

Brian Aldridge?


--
Tout de bonbon,
Anne, Seriously, Traditionally Built Gumrat
.

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