Subject: foreign language in ads

sorry to be delayed in getting a summary back on the foreign language in the recent ibm ads . as usual , lots of linguist list readers came through with the goods . ( individual thanks are at the end of this message ) . here are the responses i received : the old gentlemen walking along the river are speaking french ( there was some disagreement as to whether it was parisian french or not , with people coming down on both sides ) ; the businessmen in the marketplace are speaking moroccan arabic ; the majority opinion was that the nuns are speaking czech ( though a couple of people felt it was polish ) . i ' ve seen one ad since then which i ' m pretty sure is in greek ( people on a fishing boat ) , because one of the subtitles contains mention of drachmas . if i ' m wrong about that , i 'd like to know , needless to say . those of you who expressed interest in seeing some of our research , i have n't forgotten you ! i ' ve just been buried in administrative stuff lately . i ' ll try to do something about getting it off over spring break , which is in a couple of weeks . if you do n't see something in the next few weeks , you might want to drop me another line at renryder @ idbsu . idbsu . edu . finally , very hearfelt thanks to everyone who wrote ( i hope i have n't left anyone off this list ) : eva wyss , daniel keller , marc picard , laila lalami , john koontz , dana slancova , gary h . toops , marlene abrams miller , guerssel mohamed , frits stuurman , chris miller , greenman , younes mourchid , tim beasley , james kirchner , paul woods , jussi karlgren , marc eisinger , michael kac , rebecca larche moreton , carl woolhiser , anton sherwood , elabbas benmamoun , karin ryding , elizabeth bergman , kirk belnap ( ? ) , reinier post . if anyone wants the addresses of any of these people to discuss the language id with them further , i have them ; i just did n't want to make this message any longer than necessary . thanks to everyone ! mary ellen ryder
