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Letter: There's more to language than this

Published 9 March 2016

From Peter Papesch

My mother had three languages, I speak three and my sister speaks five. We used to switch between the three languages we all spoke, sometimes within the same sentence, when another language more accurately or effectively expressed the idea we were trying to convey.

My mother tongue is German, which permits modifying an idea several times before completing it with a verb. So syntax as well as vocabulary can thinking affect. When I a sentence a paragraph long write, it my English-reared wife to distraction drives.

Boston, Massachusetts, US

Issue no. 3064 published 12 March 2016

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