International couples: have you developed your own language?

Metsämarja · Post by **Metsämarja** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 12:39 pm

Hello all,

I was born into a bilingual family and myself married a foreigner. We have been together so long that we have started speaking our own language, that is a mix of 3 or 4 languages.

I have seen this happen to one other couple I know, but I was wondering how common is this phenomena.

Have you and your spouse or partner invented some new words that are a mix of your languages?

I am a documentary film director and thinking about making a film about this, but so far I'm very early in my research.

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Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 4:12 pm

No. We just use English and occasionally drop in a Finnish word if it's more precise than an English equivalent eg: "Would you like a glögi?" rather than "Would you like some hot fruit juice with spices, raisins and almond slivers?"

When our kids were small I believe they did tend to mix words from different languages simply because they remembered them easier or liked the sound of them. And even now they may use an English word with an -i suffix when speaking Finnish knowing that it will be understood.

You might be interested in researching into English Lingua Franca (ELF). The University of Helsinki Faculty of English is one of the main research centres (worldwide) looking at how English is developing as an international language and how it is used in communication between people who do not have English as their native language. Research into ELF covers many aspects of the language including vocabulary, grammar, syntax, pronunciation and so on.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 8:59 pm

You might find fingelska amusing. One wannabe-finnish-american claiming to "speak Finnish" wasn't amused to find out he was quite fluent in a pidgin creole of English words spoken with Finnish grammar and pronunciation...

Mene jaartil hae käretsit, teen keekii.

Metsämarja · Post by **Metsämarja** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 2:11 pm

Interesting research, Rosamunda, I will definitely have a look at it.
I wonder if anyone has done similar research about development of Finnish?..
Anyway, I am not so much interested in academic research, but rather personal stories from real families how their "modern day creole" is developing.
My husband is especially good at inventing new grammar rules that I then notice creep into our everyday language...
I have noticed this with other international couples. Maybe it's even more true about families with children, unless the parents consciously try to speak as correct and pure language as possible?..
In my family, when I was growing up, everybody spoke a mishmash of Finnish, Russian and Karelian.

Metsämarja · Post by **Metsämarja** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 2:13 pm

Pursuivant wrote: Mene jaartil hae käretsit, teen keekii.

Took me a while to understand this!

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 2:46 pm

You could start by making a list (could be audio records) of some of those phrases. It's very easy with a smartphone to keep notes (recordings) - much easier than remembering to write them down. Then you will see how your language evolves over time and in what situations you become "creative" eg is it when you are arguing or is it when you are talking about certain things? Some patterns might emerge...

FinnGuyHelsinki · Post by **FinnGuyHelsinki** » Fri Jan 16, 2015 6:56 am

About mixing languages, I suppose it only takes a group of people that are fluent in two (or more) languages. A good example are Finland-Swedish, at least younger adults and teens, words in Finnish are regularly thrown in in their conversations.

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