Topic title is basically my question, but let me explain it.
In my dreams, most conversations I have, are not perceived as a language, but rather like psychic mumbling, I don’t notice mouths moving but I hear my own voice and others’ in my head. What I hear is no language, but incoherent sounds (they sound distorted, like talking under water), but I know the meaning of the sounds being made.
Sometimes I actually hear a real language (usually english or estonian, those that I am fluent at), but it’s rare.
I normally hear language as I would in real life, in English with some bits of Spanish and other languages thrown in. However, sometimes I don’t hear a “conversation”, but instead, an idea of what the person is trying to say. I can influence these ideas to an extent, and sometimes even what DC’s say or do. But no, I don’t perceive language as interestingly as you do.
So there is a difference on how we perceive speech in dream (perhaps that would be a better topic title, instead of “language”). More input from people would be very welcome
Often language in a dream for me is implied… such as… it seemed as if I had a conversation with a DC that I thought was in a certain vein but I don’t often remember any exact words.
Sometimes I do though and I’m always thankful when I wake up with some clear actual thing said by either me or a DC within the dream.
Actual out loud statements that way within a dream I find, for myself, are interesting to interpret.
In a similar topic last year I think someone called their own dream language mentalese. Might have even been me, come to think of it…
Anyway, in most of my dreams I know that people are speaking in actual languages (English being most dominant, with Dutch as a distant second and very occasionally some German or another language). I know this because I’ll often remember specific sentences or phrases upon waking up from those dreams.
However, it does also happen that I don’t really remember exactly what’s been said, and I do think that in some dreams the language of communication may not actually be any spoken language I know. Instead, DCs and myself just speak in thoughts, which my mind then interprets as language (and this is what I called Mentalese - the language of the mind).
For instance, when I first started learning Swedish a few years ago, I had one or two dreams that were almost entirely in Swedish. This was after only having studied the language for three or so weeks. I could not have known more than a few hundred words and basic grammar. So really, the DCs and myself just spoke in some thought-language and my mind interpreted it as fluent Swedish.
So from my experience, at least, language in dreams can be a very interesting phenomenon. Sometimes it makes sense (i.e. I remember specific phrases and I know the language spoken in that dream was 'real) or sometimes I just remember abstracts, like ideas (in which case the dream language was probably Mentalese). And still other times it could be a mixture of the two.
I don’t have the mental talks with my DC’s, they all speak. And its all in English, and even though I know sign language, I’ve never used it in a dream:P
My DC’s speak, but mostly in meaning rather than language, although the languages they do speak can fluctuate immensely, sometimes being bits and pieces of various languages I’ve only ever studied and not actually become fluent in.
What I mean by the first part, is something that has already been said really. I can speak with them, and I perceive their mouths moving, but I already know what their saying before the words even leave their tongues. While recalling dreams, I find it difficult to relate what they were saying, but I know what it was they meant. It can get pretty confusing trying to find the right sentence to write down in my DJ, but I find this method of communication to be so much smoother in dreams than the clunky way we talk in everyday life.
Comprehending the intent of someone is so much easier than having to comprehend sounds assaulting your ears
In my dreams, usually the DC’s speak either Swedish or English (as those are the two languages I’ve been raised speaking), but sometimes it’s intermingled with a nonsensical word or two that doesn’t exist, but my dream self understands anyways.
I have seen spoken text as subtitles under my dream “screen”. It was nice because the sentences involved numbers and seeing them as text helped me memorise them. I remember that someone whom I was talking to on the phone said that he was 98-110% sure about something. It was kind of funny to hear/read. And the other benefit to seeing the subtitles was that written information can be perceived faster than spoken info. But what I can’t remember is that if the text and speech were exactly the same.
thats quite interestin, language is actually normal in my dreams, sometimes though the person will be saying something that makes no sense but i just somehow intuitively know what they mean.
however it is odd that in my dreams i can read. i hear a lot of people say you can’t read in dreams but i can, although i forget what i read when i wake up, the text stays the same relatively until i look away, then it changes, but it seems quite stable while looking at it.
your DCs have an interesting method of communication.
My conversations in dreams are strange. Sometimes I remark to myself that the conversation is interesting within the dream, but don’t remember it when I wake up.
The dream characters reply to me in English. But what’s strange is that there are a lot of sarcastic vibes, and sometimes stuff they say don’t even make sense.
“I ate an apple, it became a city.” Something random like that.
I remember facial expressions more than actual words, which is quite interesting. I usually understand the motive of a DC from the way they act, not from what they say.
