Neighbour doesn’t speak English at home

[Identiy]

I know I am just being nosey, but my new neighbour chats away in English to me, I always assumed and she is English. But I hear her chatting to her dog (she lives alone) and I don’t recognise the language at all. I have a fairly good grasp of French and Spanish, recognise German and Italian and a few others. I am just intrigued as to what she is speaking because I don’t recognise it at all. Would I be rude to ask her? I don’t want her to think I am eavesdropping, but then it wouldn’t matter anyway!!

I am just really intrigued!

Perhaps it's a language only her and her dog know.

It's common to speak dog or cat with your pets, it's just made up soothing friendly words

I don't think it would be rude to ask, you aren't asking her to move house and never talk to you again. Just say so sorry neighbour I think I overheard you talking to Bruno the other day, do you speak another language?

I’d ask, in a friendly curiosity “can’t help but wonder about the language I’ve heard you speaking in, I speak a few myself and I’d love to know as I don’t recognise any similarities.” She may well come from a third or second generation immigrant family, be British and appear “English” but have a different background: I have a friend who is and appears “English” but was brought up by Jewish grandparents who spoke exclusively Yiddish at home, and she’ll speak it if she chats to her cat.

Is it?! I’ve never spoken anything but English with my cat, even if it is in that awful baby voice I use for him 😂

I speak goat to the goats all the time. I'd have no problem someone asking about it if they heard me.

Is she Welsh?

Or Irish

Is she Cornish?

I know a cat adopted from Poland into an English speaking house who insisted the owners learned Polish to communicate. It might be similar in that your neighbour has been forced to learn another language by her pet. It's more common than you might think.

When she's out break into her house and place some microphones arounds the place. When you've got some recordings post them here and we'll do our best to work it out for you. Simples.

If she 'chats away to you', then no it wouldn't be rude to tell her you're curious.

If you two rarely spoke then it probably would be.

This is freakin’ awesome and adorable.

Thanks all! I’ll ask her when I next see her. We’re in Essex and she is quite King’s English and her parents are nearby so not from Ireland, Wales or Cornwall.

And there is a lady from Slovakia in our town who speaks perfect English but reverts back to Slovakian with the dog (and the children) when they have misbehaved. The dog is definitely bilingual.
Let us know which language it is. I'm going for a Balkan language and her parents left as children during the war but her grandparents spoke it during her childhood.

And of course it’s a cat who belligerently insists on its chosen language. I bet it understands English perfectly well, too!

This is the cutest thing! 🥰

Im english born and raised but i speak thai a lot indoors i live alone so i may sound nuts to my neighbours.

There's strong evidence that she has grasped some words of English when it is critical to her wellbeing. Like being fed by a non Polish speaker, for example. She only knew Polish for her first 3 years of life.

Bet she's dutch. They come out of the womb tri-lingual, and have perfected another four languages perfectly by the time they can walk. I'm so jealous. My neighbour is dutch, it's like living with the fucking duolingo owl.

My cat only speaks Dreamies,
The word, rustle of the bag or squish of the lid opening - there instantly.
Very selective on anything else.

Really? I speak a mixture of French and English to my dwarf hamster. I don’t think she cares as long as I keep the treats coming. 😂

A friend’s dog was raised and trained in Germany so only responded to commands in German. It made dog sitting ‘interesting’.

Maybe she's learning a language but is too scared to talk to anyone in it yet, so is practicing on her dog

I don’t think it’s rude to ask if you are already on chatting terms. It’s just general curiosity. I’m guessing she is bi-lingual. i have a friend with English father and Swedish mother. My friend speaks both from birth so her English is with a natural English accent.

My sister is English and lives in Italy. Her cat, however, is German and must be communicated with appropriately.