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Hegseth declares, 'I only speak American' to room full of foreign leaders (www.irishstar.com)

submitted 2 days ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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[–] tourist@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't speak American

Can someone translate

[–] IratePirate@feddit.org 20 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I'm not a very fluent speaker of asshole, but I'll try. I think this little man said that his severe lack of

education
basic decency

did not allow him to

speak any other language than the one he was born with
know that this language is called "English", and an "American" language does not exist
realise this was a flaw rather than a badge of honour proudly to be worn in a diplomatic context.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Slight disagreement on there not being an american language. We actually have a bunch of native languages, one of which was used to help code communications during WWII.

[–] IratePirate@feddit.org 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You're the best kind of correct - technically correct.

And yet, if you happened to be a speaker of Navajo, Sioux or Algonquin, you'd say just that. You wouldn't say "I speak American", just like a speaker of Flemish, Albanian or Finnish would not say "I speak (Indo-)European". It's a description of the geographic origin or the broader language family, but not a category useful to indicate any specific language like Drunk Pete is trying to do here.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 4 points 2 days ago

That's a fair assessment.

[–] ShankShill@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago

I spoke language once.