Not just languages, dialects. Do you find yourself talking say regionally
accented Italian with someone who has a strong regional accent, and a more
"BBC Italian" (or is it RAI Italian) with someone who has that kind of
educated upper class accent?
suresh
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
> Of Giancarlo Livraghi
> Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 4:12 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [silk] Are you a different person when you speak a
> different language?
>
> Udhay,
>
> these studies may be new, but this is by no means a "new" subject.
>
> Roman "aristocrats" (or otherwise well-educated people) shifted from
> Greek to Latin depending on who they were talking to - and what they
> were talking about. And there have been many similar situations, in
> all
> sorts of cultures, through the centuries and millennia.
>
> It is not necessarily "unconscious". In a conversation with someone
> who
> shares two or three languages with me, we often shift instinctively,
> but
> quite deliberately, to whatever language or jargon best suits what we
> are saying.
>
> Even when I am thinking or "mentally talking to myself" thoughts take
> shape in whichever language suits the purpose (within the limits, of
> course, of what I know).
>
> I believe that understanding more than one language is a mind-opener.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Giancarlo
>
>
