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herewego199209 OP t1_ixi0exw wrote

Reply to comment by Triskitguru in Might be a stupid question, but I've been watching a lot of stuff regarding the Spartan and Persians recently and I always wondered how would these people have communicated back then? Were there specific scholars in both countries that were trained in various languages? by herewego199209

Ah didn't think about that. I never thought about them using bridge languages.

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Artharis t1_ixi2vks wrote

The actual funny question is how the first Europeans, i.e. Columbus or Cortez, communicated with the various American natives.

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it_vexes_me_so t1_ixi6gla wrote

Lewis and Clark were often confronted with these types of situations, especially the more they moved west.

How they managed to negotiate with five, six, or more interpreters without it devolving into a ridiculous game of telephone is remarkable.

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Treyred23 t1_ixjixsx wrote

I read at one point it went 3-4 languages one way, and then of course, 3-4 back. 😂

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TheIrises t1_ixio1a0 wrote

There are so many amazing studies on this. They actually used for the most part Native translators. It was the natives that often spoke more than one language because of the tribes always being so near to each other and consistently having to make alliances as well as war.

La Malinche is a great example of this. Although her origins remain murky she is suspected of speaking 3 native languages, Chontal Maya, Yucatec Maya, and Nahuatl, as well as Spanish. By being exposed to only new languages one will be forced to learn them. This happened to La Malinche when she was put into Cortez’ hands.

A common misconception is that the Spanish had no native help, when in reality Cortez used the already messed up relationships between the native groups to take down the Aztec Empire, which had conquered them. While there were Spanish interpreters, many were also native.

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kewlio72 t1_ixi31t2 wrote

Takes out whip, THIS IS GOLD? WHERE GOLD - proceeds to whip till gold

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Artharis t1_ixi3v6b wrote

No, I get you are trying to be funny, but...

They didn't even know there was gold there until after Cortez was invited by the Aztecs.

And the best interraction was March_1504_lunar_eclipse ... Columbus and the Natives had great relations, until they overstayed their welcome ( 6 months ), where the natives wanted to get rid of them... Columbus used the incoming lunar eclipse ( which he knew would happen, because stronomists released books about future cosmic events which were 99% accurate at least ), thus he lied and said God was angry at how the natives had treated them. Naturally they knew the languages pretty well by that point.

Naturally the communication issue was resolved within weeks, long, long before the issue of gold even came up ( and with other natives ).

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sighthoundman t1_ixiphr4 wrote

For Cortés, it was Geronimo de Aguilar and La Malinche (name unknown).

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GermanScheissePorn t1_ixjml0a wrote

Probably over exaggerated hand signs looking ridiculous lol. And/or sock puppets?? I sometimes wonder how natives made fun of Columbus and giggle to myself. Sorry, I've had a few drinks...

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