[lit-ideas] "Ce Qui N'est Pas Clair N'Est Pas Francais" (Rivarol) (Was: "N'est-ce pas?"
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:01:39 EDT
J Wager writes of the Wittgenstein quote:
"I HIGHLY suspect that the Frenchman had German in mind when he made the
comment."
Don't think so. As I mentioned, there's this beautiful chapter by Anthony
Lodge, "French is a logical language" in P. Trudgill, "Language myths".
There's
a complex of superiority in French politician and diplomatical talk that
does not quite fit the German reservedness.
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2007_
August_18_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/2007_August_18)
_Rivarol_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_de_Rivarol) wrote in Sur
l'universalité de la langue française (and this is much quoted by the French)
"Ce qui n'est pas clair n'est pas français ; ce qui n'est pas clair est encore
anglais, italien, grec ou latin"! (That which is not clear is not French;
that which is not clear is still English, Italian, Greek or Latin.)
But I agree that Germans verbalise at the end -- "Die Deutsche merkuerdigen
Eigentuemlichkeit" as Geary jocularly refers to that.
J. L. Speranza, Esq.
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