Languages

[smc]

I thought some of our language enthusiasts might find this interesting.

Riding home on the T yesterday (the T is Boston's trolley system), I had occasion to help an elderly couple with some directions. I could tell they were lost. The man asked the driver for help a couple of times, in English, but wasn't really getting the information he needed. Then he would carry on the conversation with his wife. I could tell they were speaking another language (which sounded Germanic), but I couldn't hear it very clearly until I moved to the front to offer some assistance.

When I asked the man if he needed some help, the accent of his reply immediately told me he had been speaking Yiddish. So, I spoke Yiddish to him. His wife chimed in, and after I helped them with directions I sat and spoke to them for another 15 minutes before they got off the trolley. It turned out that the wife did not speak English (or barely), and they had lived in the United States for nearly 20 years! This is highly unusual.