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Our changing language

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Our changing language

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Sun March 22nd, 2009, 7:13 pm

I was trying to find the context for a famous quote of Charles V and came across this (pasted below). Does anybody know if this is true, or a joke? Anyway, it made me laugh:


"I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse"

(insert: Also, if anyone on the forum knows the context for that quote, please tell me-- MLE)

Have you heard of this quote by Charles V: "I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse", Interesting ???

Then let me bring you to this new topic below, please pay attention and read it carefully from top to bottom :P

European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for mprovement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w"with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.

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Volgadon
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Post by Volgadon » Sun March 22nd, 2009, 7:59 pm

A long-running hoax.

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Perdita
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Post by Perdita » Sun March 22nd, 2009, 9:35 pm

:D :D :D

That's funny, I was actually a bit worried for a minute - you can never rule anything out with the EU!

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Amanda
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Post by Amanda » Sun March 22nd, 2009, 9:41 pm

That's funny!

Re Charles V. I do remember that quote being used by David Starkey in The Six Wives of Henry VIII. I clearly remember it as I listened to the audiobook a number of times in the car and I can recall the sound of the readers voice. But I don't now the original source.

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emr
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Post by emr » Mon March 23rd, 2009, 12:09 am

[quote=""MLE""]
"I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse"

(insert: Also, if anyone on the forum knows the context for that quote, please tell me-- MLE)
[/quote]

There are different versions of this quote and this one in particular doesnt sound right because the language to talk to God was Latin. He lived in Belgique his first 17 years being French his first language so that part might be right.
Another version that sounds more like it is:
"Hablo Latín con Dios, Italiano con los músicos, Español con las damas, Francés en la corte, Alemán con los lacayos e Inglés con mis caballos." (I speak Latin to God, Italian to musicians, Spanish to women, French to the Court, German to the valets and English to my horses)
Other versions include birds, angels, his mother, his enemies and his dog.
Noone seems to know the origin of the quote although maybe originated in the meeting Carlos V had with Pope Paulo III in 1536 when he insisted on talking only Spanish with the consequent complains of the French Bishop.

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Mon March 23rd, 2009, 12:24 am

Well, the 'Spanish to God' seemed odd to me, considering his Spanish subjects revolted in 1521 because they didn't want to be ruled by a king who essentially ignored Spain, used it as a cash cow, and couldn't speak Spanish. Unless it was to pacify them when he later subsequently learned the language and surrounded himself with a primarily-Spanish court, much to the annoyance of the Flemish and German favorites. Which is why I was wondering about the context.

We have Charles V to thank for that annoying (to those of us raised on Latin-American Spanish) habit of lisping the 'c's and 'z's in Castilian pronunciation. It seemed he couldn't get that part straight and all the court adopted his style of speech to flatter him.

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Post by annis » Mon March 23rd, 2009, 2:00 am

Posted by MLE
We have Charles V to thank for that annoying (to those of us raised on Latin-American Spanish) habit of lisping the 'c's and 'z's in Castilian pronunciation. It seemed he couldn't get that part straight and all the court adopted his style of speech to flatter him.
Maybe it had something to do with his unnaturally large lower jaw, which prevented him from eating properly. It was a Hapsburg characteristic, and got worse in successive generations.

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sweetpotatoboy
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Post by sweetpotatoboy » Mon March 23rd, 2009, 2:48 pm

[quote=""MLE""]We have Charles V to thank for that annoying (to those of us raised on Latin-American Spanish) habit of lisping the 'c's and 'z's in Castilian pronunciation. It seemed he couldn't get that part straight and all the court adopted his style of speech to flatter him.[/quote]

Hmm, this story has been discredited as an urban legend. Language rarely changes in such a way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceceo

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LoveHistory
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Post by LoveHistory » Mon March 23rd, 2009, 8:23 pm

Why is it that some legends are "urban" and some are just legends? I never hear about "rural" legends.

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