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David · Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:31 am Post subject: I don't understand how

if Spanish is mutually intelligible with Catalan, which is mutually intelligible with Occitan, which is mutually intelligible with French, then, theoretically, shouldn't Spanish and French be mutually intelligible?

Deborah · Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:55 am Post subject:

It's like the game Telephone, where one person whispers something to the next person, who whispers what he thought he heard to the next person, and so on, until the last person says the result out loud and it's very different from what the first person said. The second person says something that's pretty close to what the first person said, and the third person says something pretty close to what the second person said, but the differences between what #1 and #2 say won't be the same differences as the differences between what #2 and #3 say.

David · Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 12:39 am Post subject:

oh, I see. Thanks for the analogy, Deborah.

Deborah · Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 1:04 am Post subject:

You're welcome!

greg in noord-frankrijk · Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 12:56 am Post subject:

Deborah · Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 1:04 am Post subject:

Interesting...I never played the aquatic version!

Actually, my family always called the game "Gossip". I've never come across anyone else who did, though.

Loic · Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 10:36 am Post subject:

I thought they are called chinese whispers.

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