re Re: NP: Twain, Part One

[Terrance]

Dave Monroe wrote:
> 
> What I want to know in re: Twain is,if Huck Finn (Ch.
> 14) picked up some French by getting "some of their
> jabber out of a book," how then did he come up with
> the pronunciation "Polly-voo-franzy"?  "Par-lezz vowse
> Fran-kay-zee," maybe, but ...


> ... and I recall having similar questions about
> Tarzan's acquisition of spoken language as well ...


Of course Huck is lying again, he didn't learn this French from no
book--book learning ain't exactly his forte. Neither is logic.  Of
course, once again,  Jim's argument is perfectly logical. 

In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to
them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand
their own language.
- Innocents Abroad

t has always been a marvel to me--that French language; it has always
been a puzzle to me. How beautiful that language is! How expressive it
seems to be! How full of grace it is! And when it comes from lips like
those [of Sarah Bernhardt], how eloquent and how limpid it is! And, oh,
I am always deceived--I always think I am going to understand it.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

Where so many of the guests are French, the propriety will be recognized
of my making a portion of my speech in the beautiful language in order
that I may be perfectly understood. I speak French with timidity, and
not flowingly - except when excited. When using that language I have
often noticed that I have hardly ever been mistaken for a Frenchman,
except, perhaps, by horses; never, I believe, by people....
 - Mark Twain, IN MONTREAL: HIS SPEECH AT THE BANQUET IN HIS HONOR.


French are the connecting link between man & the monkey.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879