Polyglot People.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 12, 1 September 1900, Page 936

Polyglot People.

By Cosmopolitan,

VxT^E, of English birth, accustomed to / ] I hearing only one language spoken \aA^f in train, and tram, and boat, how astonishing it would seem to us to hear the multiplicity of tongues in daily use in Eastern countries. In Constantinople, where the lawful inhabitants are crowded out by foreigners from every country under heaven, who retain in their own circle their own language, manners, customs, religion and literature, publish their own newspaper, and live the life of their own land in that of the Turk, in their own homes. But in commercial life the nations mingle, and consequently at least four or five languages must be at the command, of any one embarking in any business undertaking. The ladies of different nations meet, and then, in order that they may be able to convei'se, they also must, be mistress of several tongues, and so the acquirement of tongues has grown to be the test of education ; even the tiniest children have at least three at their disposal. Still, though the native language of each is spoken in the domestic circle, French is the political and polite tongue of the country, a Turk, or, indeed, anyone not familiar with it, being without the pale of any society ; it is the hallmark of the better classes, and if English be added, the fortunate individual is indeed a person to be envied for intellectual attainments. The effect of the Tower of Babel episode never struck me so forcibly as when travelling between the European and Asiatic coasts, especially when the commercial part of the population was returning home to Cade-keni, Haidar Pasha, or any other suburb or outlying village where the summer residences of the richer portion of the inhabitants of Constantinople are situated. Far. up on the hill of Pera are the

winter quarters of the Europeans and tbeir Embassies and Consulates, but in the hot weather they betake themselves to cooler regions on the lovely islands in the Marmora, or the shores of the charming Bosphorus, and to accompany a boat laden with the wearied toilers is an amusing and interesting experience, .bat, grave Turks, Germans, equally fat and grave, but not so dignified, lively Frenchmen, stolid Englishmen, treacherous Greeks, light-hearted Italians, cowed Armenians, and every other nation, not forgetting Jews from every country in Europe, sit reading, each in his own languages the news of the day (or, at least, such as the Government allows to appear, for a jealous supervision is exercised by the masters of the soil, and no item of news is published without being revised by the Turkish officials appointed for the purpose). What a medley of sound greets the ear as one steps aboard. " When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war," and in point of volubility the Greek lady certainly leads the van, but how they can continue for hours on the two subjects that alone interest them is a puzzle to the uninitiated. I have heard a lady describe a wedding dress all the way from Galata to the Island of Printripos, a two and a-half hours journey, and the subject was not half exhausted. She certainly varied the monotony of the affair by changing from Greek to Turkish, and from Turkish to French, with a little Italian thrown in, although she addressed the same audience throughout. She carried a French fashion journal in her hand, to which she made frequent reference in the course of conversation. A ponderous Turk, sitting by, whose conversation with the gentleman next him, evidently a German Jew, carried on in French, was considerably interrupted

by the fair narrator, cast looks of disgust at her from time to time, and appeared to be mentally thanking Allah that his women-kind were safely shut up in the harem-cabins, where they could chatter at will without disturbing the serenity of their lord and master By-the-bye, I now pause to remark a curious fact which has frequently struck me, viz., that amongst people whose tastes do not lie iv a literary direction, the women talk six times as much as their more widely-read sisters, while among the opposite sex the reverse is the case. A Greek lady will chatter uninterruptedly from dawn to dark ? always provided that she has a listener. She will never be at a loss for a subject until marriage is abolished, and clothes do not change their fashion every month ; while her male relatives will sit solemnly smoking cigarettes during their leisure hours. Whether they indulge in more converse during business hours, I do not know_ Probably they do, as the conversation of their wives fills up the home atmosphere, and really leaves no time for the husbands to put in a word. But still, plurality of speech is by no means confined to the educated. A street urchin will pick up a language as a chicken picks up crumbs, and the vendors of eatables or clothes about the streets is often a polyglot, as indeed he must be "when he has so many different nations amongst his customers _ One old man used to call " eggs " in ten different languages, but I dou't think he knew much more than the word " eggs " in all the ten. Once, as I wandered round Galata (the business part of Constantinople), I was accosted by a man of most dilapidated aspect, who enquired in very good English if I wanted anything ? I thought perhaps he was a spy (of which the town is full), but he told me he was a guide, and as he spoke twelve languages I believed him. He could neither read nor write one, though on the subject of his nationality, he was decidedly hazy, and did not know whether he spoke Turkish or Greek first (probably both together), but he had picked up the other ten in a marvellous

manner. Having' accompanied a gontlomau to Loudon in tho character of valet, he had acquired an almost porfect command of our language, and recounted the sights of the great metropolis to me, as ho showed mo to my destination. I once knew a little girl of four, whose father was Turkish and mother English, and consequently she spoko both, with Greek and French thrown in, while her two elder brothers counted Italian and German amongst their acquirements ; the years of tho younger scarcely exceeded the number of tongues he spoko. As the languages one hears are variable, so, also, is the kind of literature that meets ouo at every turn, and 1 liavo never been so struck by this, as when opening an empty drawer in a strango house. In Constantinople, tho (irst ono into which I peored was lined with (just imagine) a sheet from tho Sydney Bulletin. I stared in astonishment. How it got there, 1 never learned, but it gavo mo the idea of examining these useful articles, and my researches have fully gratified my curiosity. In a Turkish houso a cupboard was lined with a Neio York Herald, an Italian daily, and part of tho half-English and half-French Levant Herald, published daily in Constantinople. In a Greek residence tho number was still moro varied, including the Standard, two local Greek periodicals, a French fashion journal, tho principal Turkish daily (ask mo not to writo the title), Le Petit journal, the Figaro, and one " made in Germany." But yot another was more astonishing, for American and Armenian journals lay side by side, and indeed there was some in characters so crabbed and strange that I did not even recognise them. How all these congregated under one roof was a puzzle, and I could only guess that parcels had been wrapped up in them (for brown paper is very rare in the Ottoman Empire), and this was probably the true explanation, for although a man may speak seven or eight tongues, he doos not read or write them all, nor would ho buy journals in each language, even wero he able to do so.

Carious are the mistakes to which this polyglotism gives rise, and a goodsized volume might be compiled full of amusing anecdotes, but I will confine my attention to one or two which actually came under ray notice. One frightfully hot day a Greek girl was walking along a street in Constantinople, and T heard her exclaim in longing accents, " Oh ! how I should like to eat glass!" It struck me as the wildest absurdity at first, until I remembered that the word for " ice-cream " in French is " glace," and she had evidently used the French instead of the English at the end of her sentence. But the idea was truly ludicrous. Another lady of my acquaintance, "wishing to inform me that her sister had suffered from smallpox, translating the first syllable from the French, and mispronouncing the second, told me " L. had suffered from ' little-box ' twice," but still more trying to one's gravity was another slight error, when she showed me a piece of blue silk, and told me that her last " night-dress " had been made of that material. Of course she meant " evening dress." But all this was simply "Queen's English" compared to her brother's rendering of my native tongue. He was a remai'kably handsome young man, in a brigandish sort of way, with deep, dark eyes, that seemed to bore a hole in his listener, as he fixed them upon him (or her, as the case might be) in course of conversation. On one occasion he was dining with us. Two kinds of cheese were served, and I accepted a certain sort. He immediately followed suit, remaining impressively, "I like you not cheese." 1 was thunderstruck, but only for a moment, as I perceived his real meaning to have been, " I am like you, I do not like that cheese," but the words in which he clothed his idea conveyed quite a different meaning to one accustomed to the language he misused so carelessly. Fortunately 110 one else at the table noticed the error. In fact, I don't think any one else knew enough to discover it, ar.d he was quite satisfied with his speech, so I had the fun all to myself.

"Te ora" means "what time" in both Greek and Italian, as I discovered one day when I was asked the time in Cairo. " Half-past five," I replied in Greek, consulting my watch. My questioner stared at me in great amazement, and evidently thought I was mad ; while I, conscious of my perfect knowledge of Greek numbers, entertained the same idea of him. When I knew that the question in the two languages was identical, I perceived the mistake, he had expected me to reply in Italian. In Alexandria my purse was once snatched from my hand by an Arab lad in long white robe and red tarbuche. As it was nearly lunch time, the street was almost empty, and there was no one to assist me. The thief turned up a side street, and I followed screaming, " Stop him ! Stop him ! He has stolen my purse !" in English, trying in vain to recollect the Ai'abic for " Stop him ;" the only foreign equivalent of which I could think was the Greek, which would not have helped me very much. However, a man in European dress joined in the pursuit, at sight of whom the boy di'opped the purse, which I picked up, found my piastres intact, rewai'ded my helper, and returned, much exhausted with my recent mental and physical efforts. To rush at the rate of twenty miles an hour at noon on a hot summer's day in Egypt, vainly trying to recollect a foreign language, is rather exhausting, I assure you. Another time of severe trial was during a donkey ride on au island in the Sea of Marmora, where that amusement is the principal diversion. My mount, a fine black animal, wishing to arrive first at home, set off in advance of the rest of the party, and we were soon out of sight on the curving road, but I, not sharing his very natural desire, tried to pull him up, but in vain. I cried, "Stop! stop!" in different tones, from the mildly persuasive to the imperatively dictatorial ; it only seemed to accelerate his pace. Then I remembered his evident ignorance of English, and employed the Turkish, but without success. As he did not understand his master's language, "as she was spoke" by a foreigner, so I

addressed him in coaxing Greek and persuasive French, but all was equally useless, so I exclaimed in despair, " Do as you like, then !" Obeying the dictates of his donkey nature, he at once slackened speed, and allowed the rest of the party to overtake him. A French lecturer and writer has remarked on the English ignorance of foreign languages, and truly enough, for we are, indeed, as he pictures us, though it is true that, as a nation, we have less need of other languages than our Continentahieighbours. I have often been amused by tourists, English or American, who have addressed me in most laborious French, and when I, easily recognising their nationality, replied in English, their expression of relief was like a sunbeam shining through a cloud. "Oh! do you speak English?" they invariably exclaimed, in great astonishment, as though they had taken out a home patent for the use of the language, and consequently did not expect to hear it spoken in foreign countries. I was hurrying along au Egyptian street one day when I was addressed

by a dapper-looking little man, who apologised for speaking, and asked mo to direct linn to a certain street. All this in French, so I tried to make him understand in that language, but in vain. At last I unwittingly exclaimed, " How can 1 make him understand!" in English. "Ah! mademoiselle, you speak English," ho said, drawing a long breath of relief, " and 1. am English, too," and then wo laughed an wo recollected our laborious efforts to make oach other understand in a foreign tongue, when our native tongue was the same In Egypt even the letter-boxes share the general polyglottism, the words being in English, French and Arabic, and iv some cases Italian also, while along the railway lines the names of the stations arc in English and Arabic characters, as also the words, Post oflico (of which there is, of course, one tit every station), and so on through everything runs the plurality of language, spoken and written, advertisements, bills of sale, programmes, etc., in these Eastern lands, now invadod and pervaded by the tongues and manners of the usurping West.