[Buddha-l] languages

[curt]

Jim Peavler wrote:
> About 20 years ago I worked in southern California. Several of us 
> often lunched at a Japanese sushi bar that was run by a Japanese 
> gentleman whose English was so poor we could hardly understand him, 
> though he seemed to understand us well enough. We were all fond of 
> soft-shelled crab when they were in season, and especially liked the 
> way he fixed them, so whenever he would get in a fresh bunch of them 
> (which was fairly rare) he would call us and we would all rush down to 
> his place for lunch. On one trip when we had a little extra time to 
> spend we each decided to have a second crab. The place was very busy 
> and he was occupied at the front bar, preparing sushi. So he yelled 
> out in what sounded to us like perfect Spanish that he needed three 
> more soft-shell crabs.  Soon a short Mexican man came out with a 
> platter of crabs.  We asked our host about his and he said that it was 
> important to his business that he not get to sounding too good at 
> English because his Japanese-ness was a necessary part of his 
> marketing. However, it was essential that his help understand exactly 
> what he meant.
>
> Long before that I worked in a Porshe garage in Boulder where the 
> German mechanics and owner were careful to protect their German 
> accents for the same reason.
>
> Perhaps this explains why I talk like an uneducated cowboy from the 
> mountains.
>
> probably not.
>
A fellow named Labov more or less single-handedly created the field of 
"socio-linguistics" back in the 60's by demonstrating how people 
systematically alter their speech patterns in order to differentiate 
themselves from some groups and/or to identify themselves with other 
groups. See for example
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolinguistics and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Labov

- Curt