Parlez Vous Francais?

[sarlania]

I'm working on my alphabet soup fic and it got me thinking about foreign languages.

We know Hornblower spoke French, initially not very well but after the events Flying Colours he would've known enough to speak relatively fluently. We also knows that he speaks Spanish, after being held captive in The Duchess and the DevilBush obviously hasn't got

Comments

[esmerelda_t]

Archie's meant to be fairly fluent in Spanish, it's the reason Horatio gives to the men for why they should wait till he gets better in Duchess and the Devil.

I think if Horatio knew French and Spanish his bases would be fairly covered for the early 19thC and the type of work he was doing, perhaps he'd learn something when he was older just to keep his mind active though? Russian perhaps if he'd had contact with Russians during the War.

[sarlania]

Archie's meant to be fairly fluent in Spanish, it's the reason Horatio gives to the men for why they should wait till he gets better in Duchess and the Devil

Oh damn. It's been ages since I've seen that episode.

Russian sounds plausible. Or German, I think, given that Prussia and Austria were world powers then.

[mylodon]

I've always assumed that Archie also speaks French - not sure why. (Maybe it's Jamie being fluent in French, although I suspect if he'd been taught Spanish he'd have learned French, too. No evidence to back that up, though.)

If Hornblower was a Grecian at school did that mean he'd done either ancient Greek or Latin?

[esmerelda_t]

If Hornblower was a Grecian at school did that mean he'd done either ancient Greek or Latin?

That's not why I assumed he was known as a Grecian at school.

Sorry, couldn't resist. :P

[thehappyreturn]

I suppose he reads greek and latin too? Or is that what 'being a grecian' meant?

[black_hound]

In Hornblower's case being a grecian might not indicate a proficiency with ancient languages. XD

;)

[sarlania]

Somehow I doubt that's what CSF meant when he wrote that in.

But then again, give the slashiness of the books...

[black_hound]

Bush's inability with language is just one of my favorite themes.

Even after spending 6 months in France he still only haltingly knows a few phrases. And his pronunciation is DIRE. Hence the infamous "Dukes Freers". XD OH BUSH.

My favorite, though, is probably his inability with Spanish. Remember in LtH where they have a batch of Dago officers and officials on board the ship and Bush tries to talk to them by adding an "o" after each word?

OH BUSH doesn't cover it. XD

[sarlania]

His fumbling of languages is most definitely one of the reasons I love him so much.

Remember in LtH where they have a batch of Dago officers and officials on board the ship and Bush tries to talk to them by adding an "o" after each word?

Oh yes I do. Hilarious! Well, at least he tried, did he not? XD

[lady_branwyn]

I am not sure he would need to learn Russian. At that point in time, the Russian upperclasses spoke French among themselves, and in that army, commissioned officers would be of noble (or at least middle class) birth.

[sarlania]

I think back then knowing French would've been enough since it was the lingua franca - but I can see Hornblower learning other languages if he gets the opportunity. He's that sort of fellow. XD

[esmerelda_t]

Good point about the Russian upper classes, I'd forgot that although I was thinking more he'd learn something like Russian for the fun of it rather then because he needed it.

I wonder now if Horatio did want to learn something a bit more exotic and opted for Russian, would knowing Greek be an advantage? I'm assuming Russian cyrilic may be a bit like Greek, or it may be nothing like it.

[kittycallum]

I'm up for making "Archie speaks French" fanon just by virtue of numbers ... for some reason I've always assumed it myself. It seems to me to make sense, though, if England was almost constantly at war with France -- and again for no conceivable reason I've always seen Archie as the sort to be good at languages. As an upper-class man, he likely would have had a good education (but if anyone can give me further information on education in late 1700s, I'll gladly amend any false statements ... ) which might have included tutoring in any number of languages. I saw a board somewhere that suggested that if Archie hadn't been in the navy, as a third son of a lord he might have entered the Church. Would Latin have been required for that profession? I'm not really sure.

Horatio probably did have to suffer through Latin or Greek in school. (I say 'suffer' merely because of my own experience with Latin ... ) And I agree that Russian would make sense.

[sarlania]

I too assume that as a member of the aristocracy (I've always assumed Archie was one) he would've had a good education hence French (since it was the lingua franca) and maybe even Latin and Greek. I do know that you need Latin to enter the Church.

Hornblower's favourite book is Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire so I can certainly see him knowing his Latin or Greek.

[kittycallum]

I consider Archie being aristocracy to be canon -- Jamie Bamber said so, it must be true!

So perhaps Archie and Horatio would have both known Latin. I've now got a charming mental image of them trading Latin phrases in conversation ... I should work this into a fic if I ever bother to do enough research for one!

Good point on H's reading material. He is now firmly ensconced in my mind as an understander of Latin.