hi All,
while I'm afraid there will be no (easy) answer to this, maaaaybe someone has a clue to another source that is more detailed?
because wikipedia says it. the only source reachable is a book containing a short part about the "life & times" of W.M.V., a narration of Anne Nill about some peculiarities of W.'s use of the english language, and that he claimed "to speak 18 languages, all of them equally badly". yeah, you know.. fishing in the dark here, but if someone can show me some light, thank you.
the other source is probably an obituary in The Times (paywalled), but I guess similarly, ah, dubious.
best
gert
I never thought of looking up his obituary in The Times!
I attach it here, from the edition of 22/03/1930. Second column, from top left.
It says that he had a "working knowledge of almost 20 languages", which sounds like a repetition of something the writer had heard.
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attachment=3054]
Hi voynichbombe,
Was it Anne Nill?
From what I understand from this You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. it was Millicent Sowerby, an earlier assistant to Voynich (see her wiki You are not allowed to view links.
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She says "he spoke 18 languages, all,
so he claimed, equally badly" (emphasis mine)
... which leads me to think there is no other basis to this number than his own claim. I don't know, to me it kinda sounds like he may have been bragging to impress his clients/employees... I'm sure he did speak a few languages, but perhaps the 18 was an exaggeration?
I notice it's only the English language Wikipedia that makes this claim (based upon the aforementioned two sources).
The Polish and German versions are substantially different from the English version, and neither makes this claim.
But realistically, 18 languages wouldn't be difficult given his early upbringing. He was born in the north east of Poland in a thriving area with much commerce from Russian, Belarus and Lithuania. His Russian was obviously good enough for him to study in Russian universities. And he had an excellent command of English, and probably a passing knowledge of Italian and French, given his business trips to those countries. Add in a few stock phrases of "A beer and a packet of nuts please" for German, Swiss and Austrian, and there we go. From the sounds of things it was obviously a private joke of his (all of them badly), repeated by his friend.
thanks.. so this must be attributed to his character, then..
I used to have a colleague who could speak about 10, and I can testify they were all almost unintelligible.
Probably his native Swedish was very good, but I had no way to tell.
Alain Touwaide has 12, and those I overheard were ptetty clear.
All OT of course...
Working knowledge...to me that just means 'knows which translation dictionary to grab'
Yes, that's a point. Like today we have google translate
It came to me while looking at my CV today, nowadays we differentiate between knowledge of a foreign language in words or in writing. This may not have been the case at the beginning of 20 CC.
My grand uncle was said to have acquired 6 foreign languages when being prisoner of war in WW I, so the story went "he learned to speak six languages". But in hindsight, this must have been in writing only, because he suffered a severe loss of his sense of hearing due to exposure to shellfire.
Knowing a few words and sentences in Italian does not mean I speak the Italian language. When I read it, I get a glimpse and use a dictionary.
(03-07-2019, 05:24 PM)voynichbombe Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Yes, that's a point. Like today we have google translate
It came to me while looking at my CV today, nowadays we differentiate between knowledge of a foreign language in words or in writing. This may not have been the case at the beginning of 20 CC.
My grand uncle was said to have acquired 6 foreign languages when being prisoner of war in WW I, so the story went "he learned to speak six languages". But in hindsight, this must have been in writing only, because he suffered a severe loss of his sense of hearing due to exposure to shellfire.
Knowing a few words and sentences in Italian does not mean I speak the Italian language. When I read it, I get a glimpse and use a dictionary.
Agreed, it is enough to recognize it in order to move forward, whether it is to do the dictionary thing or to show Mr. Italian down the street and have him translate the part you are interested in.