# Danny DeVito's language skills?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danny-devitos-language-skills/614402>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 29, 2012, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danny-devitos-language-skills/614402 "2012-02-29T23:02:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danny-devitos-language-skills/614402/21 "2012-03-02T15:18:29Z")

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> [@jjimm](#):
>
> I think you’re missing the point here. She’s saying that “American Spanish” is too diverse to be classified as a single thing. An imperfect parallel, but it would be like saying “European English” then lumping Ireland, the UK and Malta together as a single dialect.

But the people of Guatemala and Costa Rica might not like being told they’re speaking Mexican Spanish. So the dialect spoken in those countries is called Highland American Spanish.

As for the Spanish language in Spain there may be ethnic issues involved. There are people in Spain who do not speak Spanish - the Basque and the Catalonians for example. So they might object to hearing the language being spoken in Madrid being called Spanish, with the implication that it’s the national language. They might rather say that language is Castilian, which implies it’s just one of the languages of Spain.

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**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danny-devitos-language-skills/614402/22 "2012-03-02T15:22:35Z")

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I thought Sandra Bullock speaks German because her mother was German.

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**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danny-devitos-language-skills/614402/23 "2012-03-02T20:51:58Z")

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Frankly, I watched some British movies where American subtitles would have come in handy. I am specifically thinking of Peter Capaldi in “In the Loop”. I remember several times thinking, “Are those real words or is he just making them up?”.

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**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danny-devitos-language-skills/614402/24 "2012-03-04T02:22:10Z")

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There is nothing Danny DeVito could do that could possibly make this film any worse. Why do a film of Dr. Seuss if you don’t trust the original material? Once again, Hollywood has proven that you can’t add storylines to Dr. Seuss without ruining it.

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