On language, the envelope
This is sort of what I was nattering about:
"The murmuring mass of an an unknown language constitutes a delicious protection, envelops the foreigner (provided the ocuntry is not hostile to him) in an auditory film which halts at his ears all the alienations of the mother tongue: the regional and social orgins of whoever is speaking, his degree of culture, of intelligence...hence in foreign countries what a respite!"
Roland Barthes, Empire of Signs (he was in japan, so hardly likely to be confused on face value, as in Brazil, and he was turned more inwards than outward. But still, something of the idea of language there.)
"The murmuring mass of an an unknown language constitutes a delicious protection, envelops the foreigner (provided the ocuntry is not hostile to him) in an auditory film which halts at his ears all the alienations of the mother tongue: the regional and social orgins of whoever is speaking, his degree of culture, of intelligence...hence in foreign countries what a respite!"
Roland Barthes, Empire of Signs (he was in japan, so hardly likely to be confused on face value, as in Brazil, and he was turned more inwards than outward. But still, something of the idea of language there.)
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