His response to Macron recently was in the most appalling child's French.Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 3:18 pmI suspect that’s how Boris Johnson has convinced everyone he’s some super talented polyglot.
The King
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Re: The King
Re: The King
I'd have thought that studying classics at Oxford he'd have some aptitude at languages, even if he only had to learn dead ones. I guess that was just part of him learning how to blag his way through life.Tessa K wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 4:24 pmHis response to Macron recently was in the most appalling child's French.Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 3:18 pmI suspect that’s how Boris Johnson has convinced everyone he’s some super talented polyglot.
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Re: The King
When you study dead languages you rarely have to speak them.monkey wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 4:39 pmI'd have thought that studying classics at Oxford he'd have some aptitude at languages, even if he only had to learn dead ones. I guess that was just part of him learning how to blag his way through life.Tessa K wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 4:24 pmHis response to Macron recently was in the most appalling child's French.Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 3:18 pm
I suspect that’s how Boris Johnson has convinced everyone he’s some super talented polyglot.
As part of my French degree we covered mediaeval French. I could read it fluently back then but never spoke it.
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Re: The King
An update to that viral “police brutality” video that is going around
https://twitter.com/sherpaginseng/statu ... ycdmZIkU4A
https://twitter.com/sherpaginseng/statu ... ycdmZIkU4A
I’ve decided I should be on the pardon list if that’s still in the works
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Re: The King
To be fair, Arabic is really, really hard. At least if you start off knowing English. It works completely differently.
I spent a few years going to Egypt quite a bit for fieldwork, and I could eventually speak some useful phrases and understand a bit, but I couldn't read or write a word.
I spent a few years going to Egypt quite a bit for fieldwork, and I could eventually speak some useful phrases and understand a bit, but I couldn't read or write a word.
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Re: The King
I think the point is more than he and his supporters exaggerate his linguistic achievements rather than criticism of his actual levelwilsontown wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 7:18 pmTo be fair, Arabic is really, really hard. At least if you start off knowing English. It works completely differently.
I spent a few years going to Egypt quite a bit for fieldwork, and I could eventually speak some useful phrases and understand a bit, but I couldn't read or write a word.
I’ve decided I should be on the pardon list if that’s still in the works
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Re: The King
Yes, that's probably fair. You wouldn't be getting to the point of reading the Qur'an in the original, as a native English speaker, without many years of full-time study. I would doubt that he's got the time. Any pretence otherwise would be just that.
"All models are wrong but some are useful" - George Box
Re: The King
That would accord with the opinion given hereStranger Mouse wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 7:50 pmI think the point is more than he and his supporters exaggerate his linguistic achievements rather than criticism of his actual levelwilsontown wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 7:18 pmTo be fair, Arabic is really, really hard. At least if you start off knowing English. It works completely differently.
I spent a few years going to Egypt quite a bit for fieldwork, and I could eventually speak some useful phrases and understand a bit, but I couldn't read or write a word.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017 ... went-wrong
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
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Re: The King
Apparently*, it's pretty difficult to get started even as a native Arabic speaker if one comes from a region where the dialect is quite far from classical Arabic.wilsontown wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 8:01 pmYes, that's probably fair. You wouldn't be getting to the point of reading the Qur'an in the original, as a native English speaker, without many years of full-time study. I would doubt that he's got the time. Any pretence otherwise would be just that.
*Source; a couple of people wot I have known over the years.
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Re: The King
The original post was by Lowkey, a delusional conspiracy theorist, antisemite, and all-round a..eh.le.Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 6:29 pmAn update to that viral “police brutality” video that is going around
https://twitter.com/sherpaginseng/statu ... ycdmZIkU4A
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Re: The King
Yeah, it'd be pretty funny if he spent ages learning Moroccan, got quite good at it, and only then realised he still couldn't understand the Koran.
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Re: The King
Shall we have a sweep on how long it takes for the 'Faculty of Homoeopathy' of which he is Royal Patron to become the Royal College of Homoeopathy? "On the advice of his ministers', of course.
Re: The King
The use of the term "Arabic" is kind of as if Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Rumanian, etc, were all called "Latin". Or Russian, Czech, Polish, Serbian, etc, were all called "Slavonic". Though since various large empires in the large regions where Arabs live existed more recently than the western Roman empire, they probably had more cross-contact and hence a bit less divergence than the decendants of Latin.EACLucifer wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 9:00 pmApparently*, it's pretty difficult to get started even as a native Arabic speaker if one comes from a region where the dialect is quite far from classical Arabic.wilsontown wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 8:01 pmYes, that's probably fair. You wouldn't be getting to the point of reading the Qur'an in the original, as a native English speaker, without many years of full-time study. I would doubt that he's got the time. Any pretence otherwise would be just that.
Then "reading the Qur'an" for a modern Arab speaker is like a modern speaker of such "Latin" trying to understand the Latin Vulgate Bible or Liturgy. The Vulgate is about 250 yrs older than the Qur'an, which from this distance is a fairly small difference. It is indeed harder to understand Roman Latin if you are Rumanian or French, but it is far from straightforward for an Italian from the Lazio region. But even the more recent Old Church Slavonic, used by Cyril and Methodius to translate the bible in the 9th century, is pretty much unintelligible to speakers of modern Slavonic languages. Fortunately for the Slavonic speakers, of various denominations, a lot of religious texts were later updated to a standard "Church Slavonic" of about the 14th-15th century, which is not quite as remote. Though it is still the same common "Church Slavonic" text you are given to read whether you are Serbian or Russian, etc, though the orthography is updated to the local modern orthography.
When typical Muslims are taught to "read the Qur'an", what this means is, learning the craft of reciting the words you see in front of you. This is typically achieved through memorisation. Memorising the Qur'an is a valued craft in Islam. People who have been "taught to read the Qur'an" have not necessarily learned to read. As recently as 100 years ago it was still common for schools in Egypt to teach people to "read the Qur'an", but not teach people to read. Might be dangerous if they could actually read. These days people do also learn to read. And so if their reading language uses Arabic script, so they may be able to observe the letters in the text before them, as a literate Spaniard can observe the letters of the Latin text before them, and in effect learn how to interpret the actual letters of the text. So many modern "readers of the Qur'an" will be able to read it off the text in front of them, or at least take cues from that text, rather than entirely memorising it. Nor have "readers of the Qur'an" generally been taught to understand Classical Arabic in general. They are generally provided with an modern language interpretation of the text they have learned to recite, not a translation of it. And that interpretation will be coloured by the particular religious tradition of the teacher. Again, might be dangerous if they could actually understand it literally, at least that is why the Catholic Church refused to allow the translation of the bible into the vernacular for so long.
Re: The King
The only place I ever came across anyone calling themselves Elizabethan was in the Molesworth books, published right at the start of Elizabeth's reign. And I now discover those Molesworth stories began in Punch and were then serialised in a children's magazine called "The Young Elizabethan".
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I love this place. A flippant remark turns into a series of informed and fascinating responses.Martin Y wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 12:06 pmThe only place I ever came across anyone calling themselves Elizabethan was in the Molesworth books, published right at the start of Elizabeth's reign. And I now discover those Molesworth stories began in Punch and were then serialised in a children's magazine called "The Young Elizabethan".
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Re: The King
As any fule knoMartin Y wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 12:06 pmThe only place I ever came across anyone calling themselves Elizabethan was in the Molesworth books, published right at the start of Elizabeth's reign. And I now discover those Molesworth stories began in Punch and were then serialised in a children's magazine called "The Young Elizabethan".
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Re: The King
It was originally the Collins magazine (published by what became Harper Collins). My mother collected them and I have 4-years' worth in folders (1948-52) There are also only about 2 issues of The Young Elizabethan - don't know if it folded or family circumstances intervened. They are dated now, of course, but actually have some very good articles and storiesMartin Y wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 12:06 pmThe only place I ever came across anyone calling themselves Elizabethan was in the Molesworth books, published right at the start of Elizabeth's reign. And I now discover those Molesworth stories began in Punch and were then serialised in a children's magazine called "The Young Elizabethan".
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Re: The King
As I said upthread, it was still being published when I was at junior school in the 1960s. By that point it had become simply "Elizabethan".
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Re: The King
Sorry, I did read that, but was interrupted halfway through writing
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Re: The King
Would they really have the coronation on the same day as the FA Cup Final? June 3 is the widely touted date
Re: The King
I would be surprised if they do. The blazers will tug their forelocks and move the Cup Final.
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Re: The King
Delayed quibble: don't you also need to place him in copious quantities of water in between?
Re: The King
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!