Polyglots à la Romanov

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

Because discussion about primary and secondary sources material regarding the Romanovs (diaries, letters, biographies etc.) inevitably are accompanied by sighs of "Too bad, I don't know Russian / German / French", I'm wondering if there are members who have the same multilingual abilities as the Romanovs, i.e. know both Russian, French, German and English (like NII and AF)? Or if there are no members who are as multilingual as that, what about the historians specializing in the Romanovs?
I think it's fascinating that such persons with ease could read everything in the world of the Romanovs!

(For the record, English and German are my only "Romanov languages", though I am learning French.)

[Katya90]

I only know English and French, unfortunately. But I would like to learn Russian someday. I've taught myself the alphabet, so I can read names as such, but I don't know what any of the words mean!

[TimM]

Because discussion about primary and secondary sources material regarding the Romanovs (diaries, letters, biographies etc.) inevitably are accompanied by sighs of "Too bad, I don't know Russian / German / French", I'm wondering if there are members who have the same multilingual abilities as the Romanovs, i.e. know both Russian, French, German and English (like NII and AF)? Or if there are no members who are as multilingual as that, what about the historians specializing in the Romanovs?
I think it's fascinating that such persons with ease could read everything in the world of the Romanovs!

I only know a bit of Klingon

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

I only know a bit of Klingon

Vaj, qatlh jang?

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

Royalty is a rather narrow snobbish hobby or interest if it doesn't inspire you to learn the language(s) of your favourite RF(s) and their subjects. Do you agree or disagree?

[RealAnastasia]

Not Russian here...I have books and dictionnaries in Russian, for my great-grandpa could speak and read it, like other 14 or 15 other languages. He began studying Latin and Greek and later a bunch of other languges (Mandarin and Japanese included).

I can speak and read and write French, Portuguese, a little English, a little Mandarin and just a little-little italian...Oh, and of course, Spanish, but this is my native tongue...

RealAnastasia.

[Превед]

Thanks. Too bad I cannot read the three books in German

Learning a language usually goes rather quickly if one is learning it for a specific end, especially if it's an enjoyable interest, like royalty. Perhaps getting a passive understanding of written German is no harder than writing 17.000 APF posts bemoaning the lack of English-language information about German royals?

Just think of how few royals there were (and are) who weren't polyglots! Just many French royals and George V, Edward VIII and George VI of Britain?

Fun fact: The Viking King Olav Tryggvason of Norway (960s – 1000) was one of the few European monarchs who, in addition to his native Norse, probably spoke a Finnic language (Estonian), picked up during his time as a slave in Estonia - and perhaps also Old East Slavic (proto-Russian), from his time at the court of the Rurikid Vladimir the Great, Geat Prince of Kiev and Prince of Novgorod.

BTW the only monarch controlling Finland who actually knew Finnish was the Vasa King Johan III, King of Sweden and Duke and later Grand Prince of Finland, a Renaissance man and contemporary and enemy of Ivan the Terrible.

[Georgiy]

English, Japanese, Russian, Swedish, and a tiny  bit of French. With the Swedish I get basic Danish and Norwegian too.

[Kalafrana]

Native English, a modicum of French and German.

Typical Brit, I'm afraid.

Ann

[rosieposie]

I know German, studied it in high school.   A little bit of French and Russian.    However I am to lazy to really learn lol.     If I am stuck on something I will use google translate.   

[miki_nastya]

I know English, french, Italian and Spanish....a few words in Hungarian, German and Russian...and of course my native Romanian 

[amelia]

I speak English, Portuguese, French and Spanish... I have been learning Russian for 5 years and can speak, write a little. Will I ever speak Russian well? It is such a difficult language....

Amale
(Eva McDonald)

[historyfan]

I only know English and French, unfortunately. But I would like to learn Russian someday. I've taught myself the alphabet, so I can read names as such, but I don't know what any of the words mean!

Exactly the same with me.

[Greenowl]

I'm lost...what is Klingon? I've never heard of it before.

English is my native language but nowadays I speak more German than English, although I try to avoid writing in German (too lazy I suppose). I used to speak French too, but I have not done so for about 20 years, so my French has become a bit "rusty", although my passive understanding of both written and spoken French has remained fairly intact. The same applies to some extent to Swedish, although more to text than the spoken word and my knowledge of Swedish was never as strong as my French (I only lived for a short time in Sweden, while I spent several years as a young girl in France and Belgium). I tried to learn Czech but gave up after a year or two as I found it extremely difficult and also lacked the time to devote myself to the tricky grammar. I have a few words of Irish (Gaelic) and Hebrew. I often have the impression that Italian would be an easy language to learn, but perhaps no language is "easy".

Cheers,
GREENOWL
(Monika)

[Dru]

Klingon is from Star Trek