“Have you ever wondered what language they speak in Limbo?”

“What does it matter if you can speak two or more languages if you have nothing original to say in any language?”

“My mother and Joe have a lovers' shorthand, an economy of gestures that comes when you are close enough to someone to speak their language. I wonder if my mother and father ever had that, or if my mother was always just trying to decipher him.”

“...language always occurs in a context - you can speak Elizabethan words, but to speak the language you have to put on the mindset...”

“Ah! The English language was a wonderful thing! You could always find the right word. He only wished he could speak the language.”

“There,” she said triumphantly. “Like that.”He began to wonder if they were speaking the same language.“Like what?”“That! What you just said.”He crossed his arms. It seemed the only acceptable reply. If shecouldn’t speak in complete sentences, he saw no reason why hehad to speak at all.”