Foreign Languages

I have been reading some Mark Twain lately. I feel a connection with him because we have a few things in common. He was born in a small town in Missouri (my dad’s side of the family is from a small town in Missouri). He spent a lot of his life on or near the Mississippi river and the big river towns like St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans (me too). He also did some travelling in Europe and has some great stories that are very funny to me after spending some time here.

Here is a little excerpt from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The entire book is FANTASTIC. If you haven’t read it in a while, you should. To set the scene… Huck and Jim (the runaway slave) are rafting down the Mississippi river looking for freedom. They have a lot of great conversations along the way like this one about foreign languages.

**SIDE NOTE: In order to keep our blog PC, I have edited the original text slightly with the text in brackets. I hope you and Mark Twain will forgive me.**

"Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?"

"No, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said – not a single word."

"Well, now, I be ding-busted! How do dat come?"

"I don't know; but it's so. I got some of their jabber out of a book. Spose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy – what would you think?"

"I wouldn' think nuff 'n; I'd take en bust him over de head. Dat is, if he warn't white. I wouldn't 'low no [body] to call me dat."

"Shucks, it ain't calling you anything. It's only saying do you know how to talk French."

"Well, den, why couldn't he say it?"

"Why, he is a-saying it. That's a Frenchman's way of saying it."

"Well, it's a blame' ridicklous way, en I doan' want to hear no mo' 'bout it. Dey ain' no sense in it."

"Looky here, Jim; does a cat talk like we do?"

"No, a cat don't."

"Well, does a cow?"

"No, a cow don't, nuther."

"Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?"

"No, dey don't."

"It's natural and right for 'em to talk different from each other, ain't it?"

“’Course."

"And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different from us?"

“Why, mos' sholy it is."

"Well, then, why ain't it natural and right for a Frenchman to talk different from us? You answer me that."

"Is a cat a man, Huck?"

"No."

"Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' like a man. Is a cow a man? – er is a cow a cat?"

"No, she ain't either of them."

"Well, den, she ain' got no business to talk like either one er the yuther of 'em. Is a Frenchman a man?"

"Yes."

"Well, den! Dad blame it, why doan' he talk like a man? You answer me dat!"