Dear George,
It's only of tangential interest for your query, but today I happened to
read an article with a nice example of an Italian trying to speak like a
German (an Austrian, to be precise) who tries to speak Italian: Maria Lieber
(not related to Lieberknecht), _Sprachspiele: Ein anti-deutsches Sonett aus
dem Jahre 1734_, in: Italienisch 63 (1996), p.88-90. The text she produces
from Ms. Miscell. Parm. 1319, Biblioteca Palatina di Parma (first published
by Antonio Restori, _La battaglia del 29 giugno 1734 e i primi documenti del
dialetto urbano di Parma_, in: Archivio Storico per le Provincie Parmensi 1,
1892, p.75-96), is an an anonymous sonnet in occasion of the battle of Parma
on 29 June 1734, where the Austrians under field-marshal Claudius Florimund
Mercy suffered a desastrous defeat because Mercy, who is said to have been
drunk, lost his oversight and gave confuse orders when trying to direct his
troups:
Per pataglia in gorn San Peter sott Parme
Sonecten
Furt dir Mercy, furt furt a pataglion!
Cos creder, e perche' star gorn San Peter
Nix travagliar, e perche' star a veter?
Furt a pataglia, furt, furt cujon
Mi foler antar Parma, carmiglion
sach dar, e tutt denter foler metter
pulzarar Parmesan, mi foler feter [Ms.: seter]
si piu' faler Franzos, o mi squadron.
Tach pataglia: crant foch, crant sclopetat
O tartaifn Franzos: In camp pers tut
Mercy, cujon all'aria rivoltat.
Camp taiz tutt caca' adoss, e rest distrutt
mort mond, molt fritt: tutt rott, tutt sconquassat
pulcer Mercy: oh crant Mister fottut.
I give a tentative translation, based on Lieber's German translation and
glosses, but writing those words in capitals which my insufficient English
(or my good education) urges me to leave untranslated:
On the battle on the day of St. Peter near Parma
Sonnet
(1) Away with you ["furt", HG "fort", it. "via"], away, away to the battle!
(2-3) What do you think, and why not work on the day of St. Peter, and
why just stay looking [Ms.: sitting] around?
(4) Away to the battle, away, away, COGLIONI! [here derived from French
"coujon"]
(5) I want to go to Parma, you lousy men ["scarmiglioni", or, as Lieber
prefers, deriving it from French "carillon": to go to Parma to ring the bells],
(6) to plunder ["dar sacco"], and want to ... [denter metter?] them all,
(7) bugger the Parmese ["pulzarar" = buzzarar, buggerare, "compiere
l'atto di sodomia" or "ingannare", derived from lat. bugeru(m), bulgaru(m)],
and I want to see
(8) whether the French will outvalue my own squadrons
(9) Attack! Battle! Big Fire! Big shots ["sclopetat(s)" from "scioppo",
lat. "scloppu(m)"]!
(10) O, devil! ["Tartaifn", HG "der Teufel"], Frenchmen!, all lost in the
field,
(11) Mercy (and his) COGLIONI turned downside up into the air [now isn't
that a litteral translation?]!
(12) The German ["taiz", "deutsch"] camp covered with shit [says my
little son, whom I consulted about the possible meaning of "caca'"] and
destroyed,
(13) all dead, all fried [???], all broken, all squashed,
(14) bugger Mercy, oh great Mister FOUTU [which is French, of course]
It will not help you a lot with your saint bishop, but at least it's a case
of deriding foreigners by imitating their language.
Kon zalutti kortiali (he kon hi piu' fiffi haukuri pel tuho komplehanno!),
Tuo Otfried
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Otfried Lieberknecht, Schoeneberger Str. 11, D-12163 Berlin
Tel.: ++49 30 8516675 (fax on request), E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Homepage for Dante Studies:
http://members.aol.com/lieberk/welcome.html
ORB Dante Alighieri - A Guide to Online Resources:
http://orb.rhodes.edu/encyclop/culture/lit/Italian/Danindex.html
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