Posted by Adam Quinan on September 21, 2006 at 14:17:02 from 192.75.48.150 user Adam.
In Reply to: Re: Young Chieftain/ dead languages was Port and Starboard posted by Owen Roberts on September 21, 2006 at 14:02:17:
I think we have to get back to the dreaded class distinctions. I suspect the laird would be the landownwer of a sizeable estate and would speak English and his son would also speak English and be educated in a public school. However, many of his tenants and the local inhabitants would be Gaelic speakers first and both the laird and the son would be bilingual and able to communicate with their tenants and estate workers. Its not uncommon for children brought up with two (or more) languages to be fluent in them both.
My father was born in India and learned Urdu from their servants as well as English as a young child. When he came back to school in England he "forgot" his Urdu. However he later ended up working in Iran and was able to quickly learn Farsi which is very similar to Urdu so I suppose that it had retreated to the recesses of his mind ready to come back when needed rather than disappearing altogether.