Gregg Reynolds says:
>Philosophical question: if somebody with absolutely no knowledge of English
>managed to produce sounds approximating an English utterance - say, "I've
>fallen in the woods and I can't get up" - would they be, ontologically,
>English sounds?
No, they would be broken-English sounds. People who don't know a damn word
in a particular language may occasionally need to utter understandable
sentences in that language, when they are visitors abroad. The world is full
of little booklets that teach you how to say things like:
SKOO-zee, non PAHRR-law ee-tah-LYAH-naw. PAHRR-lah een-GLAY-zay? Daw-VAY eel
BAHN-nyaw?
(Scusi, non parlo italiano. Parla inglese? Dov'è il bagno?)
Sòri, ai dònt spiic Inglisc'. Du iù spiic Itàlian? Uèas zde tòilet?
(Sorry, I don't speak English. Do you speak Italian? Where's the toilet?)
Rigàazz.
MAHRR-kaw chee-mah-RAWS-tee
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:20:56 EDT