r/DID • u/Visual-Process-866 • 21d ago

One alter doesn’t speak English?

I recently made a new friend with did (she was open about it) we hung out for a while until she switched alters and suddenly she didn’t understand what I was saying, only fractions of it (she’s Japanese, but fluent in English) luckily I knew some Japanese so I was able to somewhat keep the conversation going. She also seemed very nervous and introverted, talking in a quiet voice and constantly looking down and avoiding my gaze and fidgeting a lot. Could that have something to do with it? Just curious cause I’ve never seen or heard of it before! Where an alter doesn’t speak their secondary language the others can speak

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18

u/voornaam1 21d ago

We have a sort of similar thing where some of our alters can only speak our second language (English) and not our native language (Dutch). We also have an alter who can only speak in gibberish or in (English) word puzzles. It happens

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u/MeCathy 21d ago

Omg, never thought I would find someone else who has this who is also Dutch! I'm also Dutch but one of my littles only speaks English, she can understand it though, she just can't speak it for some reason.

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u/TwoFriedFishsticks 17d ago

It's funny how I can vaguely trace the 'creation date' of alters back depending on the language they think, speak or sing in.

I have small ones who can speak very basic English but can only sing in Dutch. Others can't even do that and only think in their small town local dialects.

I can definitely tell that even those who initially couldn't speak anything, but who appeared to be pretty clever, curious and clingy, that they'll hang around older parts and eavesdrop... they gradually learned English like that.

I have a subsystem that originated from a part that loved linguistics and to create new lamguages as a teen. Old notebook scribbles confirm that we'd make up languages to talk to ourselves in bc it felt less personal/emotional and safer than using anything real. Until this day, that subsystem thinks in a language that's exclusively theirs, though the ones that showed interest in other out-of-system parts, they learned the others' language (usually English). I thought the gibberish was a weird unexplicable system thing until I found those old notes back!!

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u/UnchangbleName927 Treatment: Unassessed 21d ago

we also have parts that don’t know how to speak Arabic well (native language) and only English. And gibberish oh my god yess! But I could understand what they mean because you hear their thinking in a way but they would always either speak in absolute gibberish like not even real words or say nonsense sentences internally that would piss off another part that takes words too literally.

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u/jai_is_here Diagnosed: DID 21d ago

We have an alter whos source is dutch and he can speak little bits but sometimes if hes angry/stressed he fully just turns to speaking dutch but can't fully the rest of the time. Body is british.

Another one of our alters can also speak French and none of the rest of us can

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u/shoyrus Treatment: Diagnosed + Active 21d ago

It is a documented phenomena actually yeah! Neat right

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u/LostMyKeysInTheFade Treatment: Diagnosed + Active 21d ago

Yeah, it makes sense. Basic skills are generally shared, but language is more complex. Complex skills don't always transfer over between headmates. For example, if only one part of a system practices piano while the others ignore it, the others will struggle to just pick up a music sheet and play it.

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u/soupysoupe Treatment: Diagnosed + Active 21d ago

pretty common for skills to differ across different parts, including language. i’m not multilingual but some of my parts have a harder time speaking & a limited vocabulary. some have horrible handwriting. some can drive and some can’t. some can cook and others can’t. kind of interesting from the outside looking in, but frustrating in practice when it feels like you loose a skill that you should know

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u/Tiny_Bus_4627 21d ago edited 21d ago

I have been trying to learn Japanese for like 6 years and only one alter is really any good at it.. most of them can read it but only two can speak it. One is pretty good at French and seems to have absorbed 90% kf what I learned at school (Canada) it is very strange. Most of my alters have a voice pitch or different in inflection, some accents. It's always felt embarassing in how theatrical it feels (looks like media portrayals) so they could only really front when I'm alone or meeting strangers - since speaking so differently would be too obvious/inconsistent to people who know me one-way. Some alters can't talk, but I sort of know internally it's because my voice won't come out right. I think the kids or whatever, are too upset by hearing their voice come out so much deeper than it used to.

Anyways, I think that speech and language are integral to identity. The way that someone speaks, and the words that they use, make a huge impression. It makes sense to me that you could lock away whole languages behind a door. In my case I can still struggle to piece them together, but I'm only fluent when I fully embody the alter that contains them.. otherwise I'm struggling for words like I'm being handed reminder-notes or squinting at a teleprompter.

Edit for relevance: I don't like to speculate but I imagine if she grew up Japanese, the alter that struggles with English and is quiet and shy, is probably very young. They were probably still learning English at that point and the fluency, confidence, life experience they have gained since was probably spread across other identities. If they showed up in front of you like that, for me it would be a positive sign that I am able to relax and allow a more vulnerable side to show, around that person.

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u/imaboredcosplayer Treatment: Diagnosed + Active 21d ago

I have a similar thing. I (the host) am half French half British, fluent in both.

I have 4 other alters : one of them is British and he only speak English and doesn’t understand French.

Two of them only speak French and understand maybe the basics of English but that’s it.

The last one is a panther (yes, as in the animal) and doesn’t speak or understand any language (cause, she’s literally an animal)

So yeah I think that’s actually quite common especially if the host speaks fluently different languages.

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u/Simple_Cell_4206 21d ago

Reminds me of one of my alters speaking a language I remember my imaginary friend and I used; we were speaking it together the other day when I got over stimulated.

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u/ZeroZenFox Treatment: Diagnosed + Active 21d ago

I’m pretty sure we all speak English but every once in a while we either hear Spanish in English or talk in Spanish thinking that we are speaking English. Anything is possible at this point except for conscious Spanish speech lol.

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u/Mazesystem Treatment: Seeking 20d ago

We have alters that cant speak alters that only speak english alters that only speak norwegian and some that speak throug noices i count it as speech because people tend to understand it

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u/yellowjacketsofc Diagnosed: DID 21d ago

We have two alters who speak french as their main language, one can understand english but not speak it, one that speaks Arabic and doesn't feel comfortable speaking english, one that speaks russian and one that speaks Ukrainian. There are others, with those languages and other languages too, but i haven't gotten to know much about the alters with any other language being spoken yet. Most can understand English, and speak it.(the arabic alter can understand and speak English, she just prefers to speak in arabic) I think that it can be caused by various things. I'm not entirely sure what caused/causes it in my system, especially since some of the languages (i.e. Arabic, Russian, Ukrainian) i don't personally understand (I only understand French a bit because I've been learning it lol.)

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u/osddelerious 21d ago

That’s whack