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Just like short-term you lose long-term over time. I think those who have Dementia go back in time as they lose long-term memory. So they revert to their original language. Mom had two women in her facility. One spoke Spanish and the other Italian.
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When my father was dying of CHF he started speaking to my mom in Hungarian and sometimes German. He was fluent in both languages as well as English.
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My 100-yr old Aunt (who just passed away) began speaking only Italian to the aids in the rehab facility. She spoke perfect English her whole life but as the daughter 2 Italian immigrants, Italian was her first language when she entered Kindergarten, and her mother never spoke English so she spoke Italian to her Mother her whole life, but not since she passed, which was a few decades. We think Gramma was talking to her.
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Yes. This was a thing I remember being talked about in my grandparent's generation since most of them had grown up speaking German in the home. And there were at least two people in my mom's nursing home who hand emigrated from the Netherlands after the war and reverted to Dutch.
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Yes this happens. I was told about this when I started working in healthcare. I live in a multicultural place & many elders revert back to their first language as their shorter term memory fades they rely more & more on their long term memory.

I would advise making yourself a list of common words & a picture booklet too, for common things eg toilet, bath, tissue, drinks, food, pillow. Add a hug too 🤗😍
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Just today, I was watching an old video of myself interacting with my grandmother, and I have an Italian dictionary in my hand in the video, trying to see if I can figure out what she's saying. I suspect she was, at times, using Italian words learned in her childhood, but I never confirmed that. She was raised by immigrants in the U.S. I think it's possible that dementia sufferers revert to, or go in and out of, the language of their childhood.
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My mother has started doing this too in the last few months, as her dementia has progressed. We emigrated to the United States from Poland 53 years ago. We spoke English almost exclusively at home since then. She now frequently uses Polish words and phrases, which is fine with me because I do understand it, but presents a problem with her aides! It makes sense since they are going back in time to when they were younger.
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I have not had this experience exactly but my DH aunt, 96, with dementia had a French/English speaking mother and a German/English speaking father. She is fluent in neither French nor German but has little phrases she will say in Each language.
She at one time would try to teach me these phrases. A few years ago, I started recording her on my cell phone trying to teach me. This usually just ended in us laughing and having a good time over how hopeless it was to teach me.
As recently as Thanksgiving we had a few minutes of our “class’” that I recorded. Most days she doesn’t speak so it is a real treat to hear her today. If I were you I would record her and one day you may find someone to interpret and for sure you will enjoy listening to her.
I realize this doesn’t solve your problem but you could play it back for your mama and see if she could interpret. My aunt enjoyed listening to herself tell me the stories I recorded.
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