Submitted by imperator-curiosa t3_120nnw8 in books
Amphy64 t1_jdiikp1 wrote
It's been a pretty standard aspect of at least European lit since forever, long before the internet or electricity. Bits of Ancient Greek, lines in Latin, French/Italian/German, occasionally I see English in older French works too. In English or Russian works entire exchanges may be in French because through to the end of the nineteenth century the reader is assumed to understand it. Thing with French is, sometimes it is sufficient to make sense of Italian, Latin, so sometimes the writers may also be anticipating that, and of course with English writers, there's an extent to which native English speakers know French phrases anyway.
I think it's nice other languages are entering the mix more, the idea we'll all perhaps know more Arabic words and expressions.
I use the Kindle dictionary or Google it if I don't understand but haven't always found it to work, with Latin especially unless it's a well-known line you're a bit stuck unless you can piece it together yourself.
imperator-curiosa OP t1_jdijim5 wrote
Yes! This is such a good point. I struggled so much with books that had many exchanges in French - the writing really reflected the audience it was directed at. I’m referring to books I read when I was growing up, before the Internet was as robust as it is now. Back then I didn’t have the same resources to look things up.
Amphy64 t1_jdk5dr9 wrote
I complained about the French all the way through Villette, it was a paper copy for uni with notes, so I kept having to flip to the back to even follow what the characters were on about. It's so funny now I read French, it makes you aware how similar the two languages actually are (60% English vocabulary being Latinate, most directly from French), so it's hard to remember what I thought the big deal was.
My big bugbear now is how keen eighteenth century French writers are on throwing in original phrases in Latin, which are impossible to look up. I wonder what women were expected to do since most wouldn't have had a Classical education. Not be reading it? Ask a man? On the one hand as a woman it makes me feel justified in going 'quid?', on the other, I do have the opportunity today to improve my scattered Latin...
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