The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-29
LONG RANGE LANGUAGES.
why Russians, Poles and Hungary
ans Are the Best Linguists.
FROM the New York Sun.

FROM the new 1OTk sun.
In conversation with a Frenchman the
other evening a Sun reporter asked the
following question: How comes it that
among the foreign population in Paris the
Russians are credited with the gift of
speaking the best French?"
THE Russians, the Poles, and, / think l
may add the Hungarians," replied the
Frenchman, speak French with wonder
full facility Their accent is perfect, and
they acquire all the fnesse of the Ian
guage with marvellous rapidity. One can
account for their capture of pronuncia-
ton and accent easily enough, but their
ability to get down into the depths of
language in a comparatively short time
is a little mysterious. You have often,
seen a common German concertina, and
the other thing that is called the English
concertina. You can only play limited
number of tunes on the former, because
it has no semf-tones or half notes. There
is no sound that the human tongue can
utter that It not included In its repertoire.
Consequently a Russian hears no discor-
dant note In a foreign language. He mas
tiers its pronunciation with ease Now,
when a man acquires a correct pronuncia-
ton of a foreign tongue he can get the ac-
cent with little difficulty, especially if he
has a good ear, and that Is something
which almost every Russian has.
1.-The same can be said of the Poles and
Hungarians. The Hungarian and Polish
languages have compass probably as eX-
tGnS1Ne as that OF the Russian language.
The theory that a man must be possessed
of good muscal ear in order to be able to
get over all the difficulties of pronunciation
and accent is interesting, and there may
be something in 1t. But il must be remem-
-bered that some of the best linguists the
world has ever seen were men without any
ear for music. Bismarck, for instance, who
| can speak half a dozen langua ges fluent
| " and elegantly, has no ear for music in
| fact, he can't understand why anybody
should like it.. For him it is 'all damned
noise
Among English-speaking people Ameri-
| cans, especially the ladies, talk the best
| French. 1t is not generally known that
| there is a marked difference between the
| accents of Americans and Englishmen
when they speak the diplomatic language.
| There Is what we call the American ac
| cent, and while there is the British ac-
| cent and while we Frenchmen cannot adj
mire either, we are bound to admit that
| the former is preferable. Moreover, the
| average American traveller is more OBJ
serving than the average EngliShman. He
| catches on quicker, as we say idiomatic-
ally, if indeed that Dharse is not a speci-
men of what may be called the argot of
New York. But 1t is expressive, and every
thing that is expressive is good.
LAS a rule, French-speaking and Eng
| disappearing people are not good lin
gusts OF course, there are conspicuous
exceptions, but the rule holds good. The
| Germans, on the other hand. though in
ferior to the Russians, may be set down
as good linguists They have great diff
Guilty in putting their bs and ps in their
proper places. and Frenchmen make fun
of them on account of that weakness but
in time, they manage to get over that de-
feet. Moreover. they always attack a
language boldly, without caring fig for
the blunders they make, and doubtless
that is a good plan.
1T is, of course. well known that the
Jews have a wonderful power of picking
up languages. That is a gift which they
received from the prosecutions that com
PEELED them to become a nomadic race.
but the fact that they are great traders
hard students, and keen Observers with
good ears must also have something to
do with it.
1T has been said that the ability to
grasp many languages does not necessar-
lily denote a high order of intellect; but
that is a question which had better be
left with the philosophers. All we know
for a certainty is that ii gives poor evil
dence of stupidity