On Wed, 23 Aug 2006, Cesar Neri wrote:

In this town, all the signs were in 2 languages and everyone was
bilingual. This town was Bolzano/Bozen and in this town bilingual
definitely meant being able to speak Italian and German/Austrian.

I do not think there is officially such a thing as "German/Austrian"
although there surely are several Austrian dialects, to which
"tiroulisch" as spoken in Alto Adige / Suedtirol may be alike. But
despite the fact I even saw a book of Asterix translated in tiroulisch,
that should not be what is taught in schools.

And yes, in most of Alto Adige / Suedtirol "bilingual" will refer to
Italian and German. There should even exist a "patentino di
bilinguismo", an official document which states you speak enough of both
languages, necessary to get a job at a public administration. Residents
there shall also declare their belonging to one of the three linguistic
groups (italian, german or ladin ... but I've never heard of a
requirement to be trilingual in ladin areas).

Similarly I suppose bilingual may mean Flemish-Dutch and French in
Belgium, possibly Finnish and Swedish in Finland, maybe Slovak and Czech
in former Czechoslovakia, perhaps Catalan and "castellan" Spanish in
Catalunya, or more or less complex variations thereof ... e.g. in
Swizerland it might mean any two of the four official languages.

Outside of such context bilingual may mean "any two parental tongues"
(for instance my god-daughter is bilingual in German by father and
Italian by mother ... she used to speak also some Swedish when she lived
there, but maybe she forgot growing up), or generally "any two
languages".

As we sa "il mondo e' bello perche' e' variato" (world is beautiful
because it is varied).

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
is a newsreading account used by more persons to
avoid unwanted spam. Any mail returning to this address will be rejected.
Users can disclose their e-mail address in the article if they wish so.