02-04-2019, 08:42 AM
Any polyglot solution has to have a grounding in historical reality. The languages have to be contemporaneous and ideally geographically linked, as in your Old English / Norse example. It has to have been possible for someone to naturally mix the languages in their day to day life. These sort of polyglot pidgins are perfectly naturaly, especially in border zones or recently conquered areas.
Trying to mix, say, Arabic and medieval French (editor's note: what about Jerusulem during the Christian crusaders occupation? They probably spoke it then)... OK, Occitane and Norse, is a bit of a no-no for the simple reason that nobody in history ever spoke like that daily in real life, even if they knew the two languages. Whereas it is perfectly reasonable to assume that a pidgin of Norse / English / German could have been spoken (although taking it as far as a creole is probably is step too far!).
Mind you, I dread to think what sort of hoity-toity English would have enough French loanwords in it to throw off the computational attack... my fiancée is most desolée today because the chauffeur went to a critiquer the ballet, and took the valet with him because, of course, they are so savant about these sorts of things, although I suspect they may both be in the armoire if you understand what I mean by the cliche; but it meant the entrepreneur who was bringing the recipe for the hors d'oeuvre, so á la mode you know if a little bourgeois, had to take the bus and got lost in the depot whilst buying a café because they were admiring the decor...
Trying to mix, say, Arabic and medieval French (editor's note: what about Jerusulem during the Christian crusaders occupation? They probably spoke it then)... OK, Occitane and Norse, is a bit of a no-no for the simple reason that nobody in history ever spoke like that daily in real life, even if they knew the two languages. Whereas it is perfectly reasonable to assume that a pidgin of Norse / English / German could have been spoken (although taking it as far as a creole is probably is step too far!).
Mind you, I dread to think what sort of hoity-toity English would have enough French loanwords in it to throw off the computational attack... my fiancée is most desolée today because the chauffeur went to a critiquer the ballet, and took the valet with him because, of course, they are so savant about these sorts of things, although I suspect they may both be in the armoire if you understand what I mean by the cliche; but it meant the entrepreneur who was bringing the recipe for the hors d'oeuvre, so á la mode you know if a little bourgeois, had to take the bus and got lost in the depot whilst buying a café because they were admiring the decor...