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!

Oddly I know how to say ‘on your bed’ in both Welsh and German. Due to dogs I should add!

Might be a made up language. My children’s dad and his sisters have a secret language only they understand (and yes it is very annoying!)

My neighbour only speaks Welsh at home.

Don’t suppose you’re near the London border, are you? I’m from Essex but live in Scotland and am bringing my daughter up with Gaelic. Would be great to find her a Gaelic speaker when we go south to show her it’s not just confined to here.

Do the initials FEI mean anything to your neighbour by any chance?

The person who adopted the cat was born in Wakefield, speaks 5 languages, adopted her whilst living in Berlin and brought her to Ireland when they moved here. They now live in England together and the owner and cat are devoted to each other.
What exactly is your point.

Here is the blind Polish cat feeling safe and secure with her loving owner who talks to her in Polish

My cat, Senor Rodriguez el Catto, requires all conversations are in Spanish, per favor. He ignores me if my accent is a bit off.
Actually, his real communication is in a rough Essex accent, but he has had Spanish lessons since I got him three years ago and he's now fluent.

There isn’t a language called Irish Gaelic. It’s the Irish language if you’re speaking in English and Gaeilge if you’re speaking in Irish!

It’s Irish or Gaeilge not Irish Gaelic! I think it’s great the dog is bilingual🐶

I work with a lot of people who are British but descended from parents born abroad. I heard two Indian colleagues speaking Gujarati once, one was born in India and one born in London. The Londoner saw me and reverted back to his Cockney accent, which made me smile. I can’t speak a word on another language, personally.

I love working with people who speak different languages because I learn little titbits of history and trivia. Another colleague is Punjabi, though he was born in London. He said the British say it wrong, it’s actually PAN-Jab, which means “where five rivers meet” which describes the region. Now I want to visit!

I think people are too prescriptive about the name now. It’s been called Irish Gaelic for years in scholarly articles and then there’s this:
https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/Gaeilge
Note the Ulster pronunciation.

As you can hear, the Gaeilge spelling reflects the Connemara pronunciation. It’s been the standard spelling since the 1950s but there is no standard pronunciation and different spellings of the name are still in use in different Gaeltachtaí, certainly in Munster. So it’s not always Gaeilge when you’re speaking (or sometimes even writing) in Irish.

A sign in Kerry for example.

I’m Scottish and tried to learn Gàidhlig with Duolingo but that owl is so passive-aggressive, the daily notifications gave me anxiety 😅

I speak to my dog like he’s human and it annoys DH no end, but it has never occurred to me not to speak ‘normally’ to him. For example, if the dog is panting I’ll say ‘go and have some water, please’, and he will go to his bowl for a drink.

(I realise he’s responding to the word ‘water’ alone but him obeying a full sentence command is funnier 😁)

Maybe you neighbour lived in that country and brought doggo back with them. I have a rescue from Hungary and I chat to him in both languages. It’s helped my girls learn a bit about the language and their heritage too. Although, I don’t think ‘good boy!’ will be much use when we go on holiday there in August.

Is it any of your business though? we have a few languages here, less since my son has grown up with his dad part time but why does it matter?

Scandinavian? Do you prefer Nordish or Swegian?

Buckle down if you're going to An Gaeltach especially if you're Sasnach

My dog speaks dog. Try as I might to get her to speak English, she stubbornly refuses.
But I hear her call me filthy dirty words from the other room if her dinner is 12 seconds late.
The little bitch. ❤️

She is speaking 'dog'. That's the polite thing to do.

Saluda a tu pequeño amigo gatito 🐈‍⬛

I’m Australian, but our cat only speaks Chinese. We’ve had to learn enough to converses with her. She was adopted, but it’s the least we can do, to keep her connected to her culture. 😀

It would be rude to ask her - what she does in her own home is none of your business and it would be awful for her if she knew you were listening. When you have talked more, all sorts of subjects will come up and you'll find out eventually.

I know I have committed the sin of not RTFT but I was going to say the same. When I lived alone I chatted away in Russian to my cats because it was my GM's mother tongue and I was learning it while at Uni.

A few years ago DH and I were working abroad and we picked up 2 street dogs (and brought them to the UK). One of my UK friends asked very seriously how they could understand us as we spoke English to them and they of course were Serbian. We thought she was joking, but she wasn't......

Here we go, someone telling us about our language

@Hollyhobbi I normally would say “….speaking Irish….”

or
“…..ag caint as Gaeilge …..”

but because the neighbour was speaking Scottish Gaelic to the cat it was easier to differentiate by calling it Irish Gaelic for the majority who would be UK based readers of this thread.