In many Chinese families it’s pretty common for people to talk to each other in completely different languages. My New York aunt speaks to me in Mandarin / Hokkien. She speaks to her husband in Toishanese. They speak Cantonese to other people. We all sort of understand each other when we are speaking different languages, but respond in our own language. From time to time we might dip into another language to illustrate a point.
My grandma used to call this ‘chicken and duck talk’
The languages are from entirely different language trees.
Hokkien / Teochew are southern Min languages, Cantonese is a Yue language
Mutual intelligibility is debatable, but many (especially older folks) just learn all the ones they need informally. My parents speak Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, Mandarin.
https://www.omniglot.com/chinese/spoken.htm
This link led me to what appears to be a 10-minute summary of the Christian Bible in Dungan language. Complete with Semitic looking actors!
Adrianna Tan
NilaJones