Neighbour doesn’t speak English at home

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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!

I'm entirely English but my ex was Polish and we had a dog together who stayed with me when we split - she wouldn't respond to anything but Polish. Maybe something like that?

We don’t speak English at home - it’s our third language. However the dog and cat have their own language which we haven’t worked out yet!

Probably doesn't speak Polish. Just messing with her head. Because cat.

I used to live in the Netherlands and honestly 5 year olds spoke better English than me at 20!

My cat speaks perfect English, it’s his selective hearing that causes the problem.

I'm mainly monolingual and speak English to our cats, apart from the occasional Yiddish word to let our marmalade cat know what a little chazzah (pig) he is. My DH has a smattering of Xhosa and Mbele from a childhood spent in southern and central Africa, but we are probably at our most bilingual when we get into an exchange of meows with the cats. As DH says, for all we know we are saying "yer Mam!" in Cat, while they say "come outside and say that!"

I can speak 'as Gaelige' (in Gaelic Irish) to my dog occasionally. Nobody seems to mind, but I do worry slightly sometimes if he answers back... ;)

P.s. OP I think your neighbour must be some post cold war spy, and you & her pet have now blown her cover. Report her to M15 immediately!!!

This made me laugh

Perhaps Caninese

MIL rescued a dog that only knew French she insisted. So we all played along . But secretly I used to call him for a treat in English and he quickly responded. I think he was secretly a doggy polygot .

She speaks English with you and Cat with her cat😻. Obviously😀

If she hasn’t told you, perhaps she doesn’t want to?

My dad used to talk to our cat in Ancient Greek.
Then he’d pop down to the church and speak Latin with the priest.
He was English and nothing else.

Yeah……..perhaps labradorian, sheltonian, cocker puddlian ?

I sometimes speak Klingon to my cat. Qapla'
My dad used to speak to my childhood cat in Latin.
Curious to know if you have found out what she is speaking?

This is the correct answer! 😂

Username checks out!

I have been known to practice my duo lingo with my pets.

There was a man on YouTube (I think) who spoke Klingon to his dog. Maybe it’s a made up language.

I wouldn’t ask.

I’d ask! It’s absolutely fine, sane and normal to ask a friendly question!

Please ask!

My last cat - he's still alive and well but due to my health he's had to go to live in London with one of my best friends - born and bred in Sussex but I taught him a little French because if I had to give him a mild telling off it sounded softer and more gentle in French and he would listen and sort of semi do what he was told in French, which was often just to come here. And we had some cuddly French moments. I don't speak a lot of French but in his new cosmopolitan life in London, my friend is just about fluent in French so she speaks to him in French a little too.

Did he need French? Nope. I think I'm just a pretentious twat.

My guess would be that although she's English she grew up bilingual due to having one parent or grandparents from a different background. My friend is English but her son is Spanish, and he speaks both languages almost interchangeably with no trace of a Spanish accent in his English and apparently no trace of an English accent in his Spanish.

I've also heard bilingual people say that sometimes each language feels 'right' to them for different things, so maybe for her talking to pets is something that just comes more naturally in her other language.

Sounds like your natural curiosity is genuine and friendly.

No problem in asking her at all.

I’m English, but speak two other languages due to dual nationality/living abroad. One of them is my default road-rage language; I can’t help it, it just pours out of me when I’m thwarted in the car!