Abstract

We meet on a sunny day somewhere in the center of a European metropolis. We take our seats at an outdoor Italian restaurant, situated on a square next to a surface subway station. Around us we hear a great variety of languages. English, Spanish, German, French, and Italian are fairly easily recognizable; other people’s speech is more difficult to identify, e.g., Scandinavian, Slavic, and East-Asian. Quite frequently their conversations—as well as ours—are drowned out by typical city sounds: cars passing by, often using their horns; a South-American band playing traditional folk tunes at one corner of the square, attracting quite an audience; the squeaking brakes of the subway trains, followed by some announcements about rerouting; sirens of police cars, more in the distance; planes, periodically flying over on their way to or from one of the local airports; etc.