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!

Posting to say this wins the internet for today :)

Maybe the dog is a rescue from abroad and was trained in another language - you could start by asking about the dog then ask about the language @Identiy ?

My dad was Eastern European. I only speak a little of the language.

If I hear a foreign accent, I'll sometimes ask "What a lovely accent. Where does it come from?"

I only ever got someone from Dad's country once, whilst DH and I were in Aberdeen for the weekend. I managed to tell her (in Dad's language) that my late father came from her country. She was delighted.

I talk to my cats I'll admit but it's either in English or 'meow meow meow meow meow' in a singsong voice which I'm assuming nobody would mistake for an actual language 🤣

Is anyone else desperate for OP to go and ask the neighbour NOWWWWWWW what the language is?????

My bets are :

1. a Scandinavian language, and the neighbour actually is Scandinavian
2. Dutch, ditto
3. Portuguese
4. Swahili

We adopted a Romanian dog so I thought it would be fun to learn some Romanian on Duolingo to speak to him and see if he liked it. He didn’t seem to give a crap but I did manage to have a sort of Romanian-English chat with a Romanian guy in the pub once.

I'm betting on Romanian or a Slavic language.

I hope she's speaking Esperanto. It'd be nice for it to have a resurgence as a pet language.

So funny. My British born and raised pet understands Dutch commands thanks to half dutch dc.

What?
A - I've never heard of this. No idea how you can decide its "common" or that "speaking dog" is the same as an actual language
B - I'm sure op can tell the difference between a few silly words or "let's go walkies so you can sniffle whiffle at those smelly wabbitses" and a whole, real, language with full vocab and syntax....

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.

Best definition of "mother tongue" I have ever heard was from a couple of bilingual 8 year olds in a class I was teaching, who could effortlessly switch between English and Bengali. (As could their parents). "The language Mummy shouts at you in when she is really annoyed."

That's so strange! How did did know what the cat wanted?

My money’s on Klingon.

My pets have always been talked to in both English and Welsh

Most dogs are quite adaptable when it comes to language, and even their own names.

My last dog (much missed) was called Daisy but she'd happily answer to Maisie, Lazy, Crazy etc.

I speak Scandinavian to more or less any animal or baby hanging around. I don't mind people asking me what my mothertongue is. Go ask her!

I'd love that!

I can well believe that, peak cat behaviour and I bet it ignores her whatever language she speaks to it unless it involves food and treats.

Oh no I meant speaking a made up language wasn’t common: perfectly normal to use an actual language you speak!!

This reminds me of the time we got a new camera with voice recording due to neighbour issues....I nipped out one day and decided to check it was working, knowing DD was in the kitchen so I'd hear some clonking around etc. It turns out she was speaking to herself in fluent roadman - a side to her that if never seen 🤣

So are the Swiss. I worked with a colleague who was fully native fluent in German, her local dialect, French, Italian, Spanish and English and could also understand and speak quite well in Dutch and Flemish plus a bit of Polish.

😹😹

I was about to say the same! Dutch people have magical language powers.

She's blind which was the reason she was adopted. She relies on those around her to help with their voice for orientation and she just won't move or feel safe unless she is spoken to in the language she learned for the first 3 years of her life. She hides under the sofa if nobody speaks to her in a language she understands.