Newsgroups: sci.lang
From: Kitt@cary.demon.co.uk (Kittredge Cowlishaw)
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!demon!cary.demon.co.uk!Kitt
Subject: Re: refusing to speak a language Re: Mastering many languages
References: <34us4j$k65@brachio.zrz.TU-Berlin.DE> <CvzCoK.Mu1@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <1994Sep15.134158.51094@ucl.ac.uk> <35hrui$7n3@gordon.enea.se>
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Date: Mon, 19 Sep 1994 07:59:36 +0000
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sommar@enea.se "Erland Sommarskog" writes:

> Another factor which seems to appear with smaller language and
> dialect groups is that foreigners are not welcome to speak the
> local language, which is supposed to be an internal code with
> which strangers should not eavesdrop on.

Ed Stephenson encountered this reaction in Tunis, where the language
of business and tourism is French.  An Arab shopkeeper in the souk
was outraged at Ed's fluent Tunisian Arabic, and shouted angrily at
him to speak his own language.  Just to spite him, Ed complied by
switching to English, which brought the conversation to a sudden halt.

Kittredge

(Btw, I'd be grateful for a current address for Ed, or any news
of him, if anyone out there knows his whereabouts.)
