#anglo-french relations

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Elle avait en France un statut spécial et, dans le cœur des Français, une place singulière. Nul autre souverain étranger n’avait gravi le perron de l’Élysée plus souvent qu’elle, qui fit à la France l’honneur de six visites d’État, et rencontra chacun de ses présidents. Le français était pour elle, non seulement une ancestrale rémanence normande conservée en maints usages, mais une langue intime et chère. La reine aux seize royaumes aimait la France, qui le lui rendait bien. Le peuple britannique, l’ensemble des pays du Commonwealth ce soir pleurent la reine. Le peuple français aussi porte son deuil.

Celle qui côtoya les géants du XXe siècle sur le chemin de l’histoire s’en est allée les rejoindre. La République et le peuple français adressent à Sa Majesté le Roi, à la famille royale, au gouvernement de Sa Majesté et au peuple britannique le témoignage de son amitié séculaire et de sa tristesse.**

- Emmanuel Macron, Président de la République française.

President Macron went to the British Embassy in Paris to sign the condolence book and share his thoughts on the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II. France was the one European country the Queen visited the most during her reign since she spoke French fluently and loved its culture and its arts. President Macron acknowledged this and gave thanks for her interest in his nation by giving his remarks (in english). It was a touching gesture.

**She held a special status in France and a special place in the hearts of the French people. No foreign sovereign has climbed the stairs of the Élysée Palace more often than she, who honoured France with six state visits and met each of its presidents. For her, French was not a mere relic of Norman ancestry that persisted in so many customs, but an intimate, cherished language. The Queen of sixteen kingdoms loved France, which loved her back. This evening, the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth are mourning their Queen. The people of France join them in their grief. She who stood with the giants of the twentieth century on the path of history has now left to join them. The French Republic and the people of France extend their long-standing friendship and deep sorrow to His Majesty the King, to the Royal Family, to His Majesty’s Government and to the British people.

#president macron #emmanuel macron #france #french #HM Queen Elizabeth II #elizabeth II #condolences #anglo-french relations #britain #British embassy Paris

[hedgehog-moss]

The “Readers also enjoyed” feature on Goodreads (which GR says was created 10 years ago to “use people’s reviews, ratings and other data to make great personalised recommendations”) is still so bad when it comes to non-anglo books, it’s kind of funny at this point. I don’t understand how it continues being so useless when there are lots of people logging and rating books in other languages on this platform every day? It’s not breathtakingly accurate for anglo books either but the “See similar books” link will suggest at least some books that are somewhat similar in some way, whereas for non-anglo books after all this time it’s still like “I see you enjoyed this short French nonfiction book about literary salons in 18th-century Paris—I’m sure you’ll love this modern epic novel written in Romanian about a man who cheats on his wife with a ghost, since you're into the Foreign Books genre.”

#i know it's an american platform and it's normal for english language features to work better but #i thought the algorithm would have to improve eventually with all the non-anglo data added every day and it just stubbornly doesn't #the other day based on a contemporary literary fiction book in french it suggested an old-timey scifi book in english and #the vocal score to an italian opera in italian. #if it works based on the books the users read or rate highly shouldn't it be the other way around and show you #books in random languages in relation to english books since there are more people reading in english + their native language #than in italian + some other non-english language for ex? i don't understand how it works

[nostalgia-tblr]

i miss those heady days when i was writing the anglo-saxon au and looking shit up and then not using the information in the fic but hey look i'd Researched, and the thrill of having to explain to the imaginary reader that 'this thing is SCANDALOUS in the historical context that i haven't really provided for you', and all that sort of stuff, so i would quite like to write another Historical MCU AU but i don't know what it'd be and also i kind of fear people getting somehow annoyed by it.

#fic related #i can't do regency (not keen on the frocks) so even though it's a Popular Romance Genre that one's ruled out :( #i feel like i could manage things set between the anglo-saxon era (wimples!) and the french revolution (panniers!) #i own several books about tudor-era clothing so if you have any suggestions that'd utilise those resources let me know #(you may be picking up on a bit of a clothing focus here) #aside: if anyone thinks i just forgot to give AU!Sylvie knickers in the adultery AU - NO I DID NOT I WAS BEING ACCURATE!!! #(that's been nagging at me so i felt the need to capslock) #another thing putting me off is that i know i'm pretty hypocritical about AUs of this sort :S #but that's kind of the thing - if i'm losing the canon context that drew me in i'll need a new one that i already care about somehow #but (x2) i'm not stopping other people writing the oddly specific au scenarios they're into am i? so how's it bad if i do it myself?

[mishkakagehishka]

With the language speaking poll, it varies from country (and state/county in the US)

In my area you're required 2 years of a language course

Most kids take it but do the bare minimum or just don't remember it. Usually you grow up knowing that language/being taught it young. Sometimes we learn jt in school and remember enough to keep taking to learn and remember. We usually offer use it or lose it languages, which most kids don't use it and then they lose it and then no one speaks other languages

Huh! That makes sense, actually, i feel like 2 years is not nearly enough to retain enough knowledge, and not even enough to learn a lot. I think when i started studying italian in 4th grade, we didn't even get to subjunctives by the time i was 8th grade, and subjunctives are a surprisingly common form. At least to the way I speak. And even among those who took the elective third language, i know a lot of folks who don't remember a thing about it, i'm assuming because even four years of a once-per-week class isn't enough for retention.

Well, it's sad, at least to me who is linguistically inclined. Quot linguas calles tot homines vales is something i take personally lololol but right! I guess it's the sort of inertion that happens to speakers of a lingua franca, there's no "need" to learn a foreign language, so even those who are talented for languages might never find out :/

Well, I hope thanks to globalisation, at least those who like foreign languages can find ways to learn even outside of formal schooling :>

#i think you'll notice easily that i'm a bit in love with foreign languages and really defend languages as a subject in school with my life #i once saw (a native eng speaker) call foreign language subjects joke classes and useless and i felt like maiming lmao #but i feel like i totally understand what you mean #it's one thing with english - it's a mandatory 2nd language from 1st to 12th grade in my country #which means that it's standardised and you're always learning more and more and more and thanks to media #you're bound to retain it. i even had it in preschool ! #and a related digression but it also depends on the age you give students a foreign language - the older we get the harder it is to learn #a language. not impossible but just more difficult. i think a huge part of the reason why i'm fluent is because of the fact that i started #learning when i was 4 years old. the third language is an elective in most 4th-8th grade classes and kids get to choose #between italian and german usually (a friend of mine took french tho) and despite the fact that they're languages we do get exposed to #but i tell you most kids i know don't remember anything. depending on the high school you either get a mandatory 3rd language or a #mandatory 3rd and 4th. again italian and/or german. but those tortured souls in classic gymnasiums had latin and ancient greek </3 #even from my hs class i don't know many folks who remember much italian. it's dependant on the kid's will to learn when there's not as much #time or focus on the class bc yknow. we took the same classes yet i'm quite comfortable majoring in a language my friends can barely #introduce themselves in. such is life. i'd love languages to be more focused on especially in these times of globalisation but well #i guess it'll just always be harder to implement a focus on anything non-english #bc it's considered one of the only useful language there's the inertion in anglo countries #and the unwillingness to bother in non-anglo countries #at least in mine where kids have like 17 other subjects i can see why they'd to the bare minimum for 3rd language #even i - linguistically inclined as i am - passed on the opportunity to take french in hs because i just had enough on my plate #asks

[suzannahnatters]

So here's one of the coolest things that has happened to me as a Tolkien nut and an amateur medievalist. It's also impacted my view of the way Tolkien writes women. Here's Carl Stephenson in MEDIEVAL FEUDALISM, explaining the roots of the ceremony of knighthood: "In the second century after Christ the Roman historian Tacitus wrote an essay which he called Germania, and which has remained justly famous. He declares that the Germans, though divided into numerous tribes, constitute a single people characterised by common traits and a common mode of life. The typical German is a warrior. [...] Except when armed, they perform no business, either private or public. But it is not their custom that any one should assume arms without the formal approval of the tribe. Before the assembly the youth receives a shield and spear from his father, some other relative, or one of the chief men, and this gift corresponds to the toga virilis among the Romans--making him a citizen rather than a member of a household" (pp 2-3). Got it?

Remember how Tolkien was a medievalist who based his Rohirrim on Anglo-Saxon England, which came from those Germanic tribes Tacitus was talking about? Stephenson argues that the customs described by Tacitus continued into the early middle ages eventually giving rise to the medieval feudal system. One of these customs was the gift of arms, which transformed into the ceremony of knighthood: "Tacitus, it will be remembered, describes the ancient German custom by which a youth was presented with a shield and a spear to mark his attainment of man's estate. What seems to the be same ceremony reappears under the Carolingians. In 791, we are told, Charlemagne caused Prince Louis to be girded with a sword in celebration of his adolescence; and forty-seven years later Louis in turn decorated his fifteen-year-old son Charles "with the arms of manhood, i.e., a sword." Here, obviously, we may see the origin of the later adoubement, which long remained a formal investiture with arms, or with some one of them as a symbol. Thus the Bayeux Tapestry represents the knighting of Earl Harold by William of Normandy under the legend: Hic Willelmus dedit Haroldo arma (Here William gave arms to Harold). [...] Scores of other examples are to be found in the French chronicles and chansons de geste, which, despite much variation of detail, agree on the essentials. And whatever the derivation of the words, the English expression "dubbing to knighthood" must have been closely related to the French adoubement" (pp 47-48.)

In its simplest form, according to Stephenson, the ceremony of knighthood included "at most the presentation of a sword, a few words of admonition, and the accolade." OK. So what does this have to do with Tolkien and his women? AHAHAHAHA I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED. First of all, let's agree that Tolkien, a medievalist, undoubtedly was aware of all the above. Second, turn with me in your copy of The Lord of the Rings to chapter 6 of The Two Towers, "The King of the Golden Hall", when Theoden and his councillors agree that Eowyn should lead the people while the men are away at war. (This, of course, was something that medieval noblewomen regularly did: one small example is an 1178 letter from a Hospitaller knight serving in the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem which records that before marching out to the battle of Montgisard, "We put the defence of the Tower of David and the whole city in the hands of our women".) But in The Lord of the Rings, there's a little ceremony.

"'Let her be as lord to the Eorlingas, while we are gone.' 'It shall be so,' said Theoden. 'Let the heralds announce to the folk that the Lady Eowyn will lead them!' Then the king sat upon a seat before his doors and Eowyn knelt before him and received from him a sword and a fair corselet."

I YELLED when I realised what I was reading right there. You see, the king doesn't just have the heralds announce that Eowyn is in charge. He gives her weapons.

Theoden makes Eowyn a knight of the Riddermark.

Not only that, but I think this is a huge deal for several reasons. That is, Tolkien knew what he was doing here.

From my reading in medieval history, I'm aware of women choosing to fight and bear arms, as well as becoming military leaders while the men are away at some war or as prisoners. What I haven't seen is women actually receiving knighthood. Anyone could fight as a knight if they could afford the (very pricy) horse and armour, and anyone could lead a nation as long as they were accepted by the leaders. But you just don't see women getting knighted like this.

Tolkien therefore chose to write a medieval-coded society, Rohan, where women arguably had greater equality with men than they did in actual medieval societies.

I think that should tell us something about who Tolkien was as a person and how he viewed women - perhaps he didn't write them with equal parity to men (there are undeniably more prominent male characters in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, at least, than female) but compared to the medieval societies that were his life's work, and arguably even compared to the society he lived in, he was remarkably egalitarian.

I think it should also tell us something about the craft of writing fantasy.

No, you don't have to include gut wrenching misogyny and violence against women in order to write "realistic" medieval-inspired fantasy.

Tolkien's fantasy worlds are DEEPLY informed by medieval history to an extent most laypeople will never fully appreciate. The attitudes, the language, the ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS use of medieval military tactics...heck, even just the way that people travel long distances on foot...all of it is brilliantly medieval.

The fact that Theoden bestows arms on Eowyn is just one tiny detail that is deeply rooted in medieval history. Even though he's giving those arms to a woman in a fantasy land full of elves and hobbits and wizards, it's still a wonderfully historically accurate detail.

Of course, I've ranted before about how misogyny and sexism wasn't actually as bad in medieval times as a lot of people today think. But from the way SOME fantasy authors talk, you'd think that historical accuracy will disappear in a puff of smoke if every woman in the dragon-infested fantasy land isn't being traumatised on the regular.

Tolkien did better. Be like Tolkien.

#tolkien #middle earth #jrr tolkien #lord of the rings #lotr #the lord of the rings #eowyn #writing fantasy #fantasy #female characters #writing #historical fiction #medieval women #medieval history #medieval #history #womens history

[ifuckingloveryoshu]

CANTO 6 PART 3 SPOILERS

Im beyond pissed, tumblr crashed in the middle of me doing this so this is going to be so much shorter than I want it to be. NON RYOSHU RELATED POST ABOUT THE HEATHCLIFF. DON'T TAKE WHAT I SAY AS FACT I AM NOT QUALIFIED FOR THIS. LOOK AT THE LINKS I CITE FOR MORE INFORMATION! You can click them when their mentioned. Im not citing in the proper format. This was done on 5 hours of sleep, two eggs, and a box of banana milk.

The Erlkonig or Erlking is this figure in German Mythology who kidnapps children. When he touches you, he kills you. This poem made by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe then adapted to this song is what you see. Erlkoning Heathcliff is trying to intice Heathcliff to die by telling him that it's his fault Cathy is dead. All identities refer to the sinner as "child" when you look into their uptie stories. Mili and the singer of the video here use the same technique of changing the tone and pitch of their voice to differntiate two characters.

The Wild Hunt is a part of Norse Mythology where Odin, mounted on his sixed legged horse Sleipnir, goes through the forest. According to norse-mythology.org, anyone who gets caught up in The Wild Hunt, spotted or seen, gets carried away. Your soul will get incorporated into The Wild Hunt. We all know Erlking Heathcliff did, the rising of the bodies. The Wild Hunt is also mostly describe as having hounds, and who was a hound? Hindleys.

From the same website, on the page of Sleipnir reads,

Also, the horse that heath rides on has a weird liney pattern on it's 4 legs that kind of look like that runestone. There's more connection here, I just don't want to type it again.

How did Project Moon mix two diffrent mythological ideas together? (Its not just two, they mixed so many more.) Meet human mistranslation and the progression of oral tradition and story telling throught time. I don't kno where to start. There was mistranslation poem when, according to ancient-origins.net Johann Gottfried Herder wrote a seperate ballad from the one I linked at the start called Erlkönigs Tochter.

The Anglo-Saxons were early German settlers. This is where things get messy because I have several more potential leaders of the Wild Hunt but here are two, King Herla and Herne The Hunter.

Herne The Hunter: Popularized by Shakespeare potentially from a play called The Merry Wives of Windsor. This man called Jacobb Grimm said that Hene The Hunter was related to Odin. Herne the hunter is this ghost. ( https://mythopedia.com/topics/herne-the-hunter ) Im trying to say there are other media that connect the Erlking to the Wild Hunt but its on Wikipedia so it makes it seem fishy. Another Link Here

King Herla: A british king who attended a dwarf wedding. When he left the wedding, the world had changed. Unbeknowst to him, 300 years had passed and he was claimed to be missing. When his men tried to get off their horses, they turned into dust so they were stuck like that. Read it here, its short. Someone better and more credible than me summed the story up better than I did, historian Chrissy Senecal. Read right here. An additional link to cross refrence if you'd like. King Herla and Odin got conflated together when really, their diffrent people

I found this other website article about Wild Hunts which kind of brings me to the next thing, the Harlequinn. They weild clubs, their devils, the image of them is popularly joyful? Maybe goofy and lighthearted? Perhaps associated with cards? Matt, or Heathcliff's portrayal of Matt. Now, I'm looking at Wikipedia and I see this section.

What do we have here? A mention of the Erlkönig, Dante's Inferno, masked, club weilding giant. Heathcliff's not giant but hes pretty tall, at least by my standards but whatever, im very short. DANTE'S INFERNO, Canto 11 and 12. What the fuck Project Moon, are you playing 5d chess?

Back on topic, Hellequin is the fairy king, and this figure pops up in German, French, Italian, and English folklore. I can't do proper research when all my search results are mixed with random junk and I'm becoming nutty. You will not normally be able to access this article without paying but here's the link anyways. Journal Article from this book on a section about horned deities made in 1922 speaks of a group of ghost riding, who are also huntsman.

And also another mention of Dante's Inferno. The name, Herne The Hunter is mentioned again.

All and all, The link between The Erlkonig and The Wild Hunt isn't as wild and unexplainable as I originally thought. It's just so cool to see all these concepts intersect. There still so much to touch upon like the headless horseman refrence and the Dullahans, RYOSHU COMPARING THE WILD HUNT TO THE PARADE OF 100 SPIRTS, something along that line, I forgot the name. I'm just not the right person to yell about this but I will anyways. The writers mixed so many symbols of death into one character. Such a wild and nutty Canto. Thank you so much Project Moon.

#not ryoshu #not ryoshu related #limbus company #lcb heathcliff #a link between The Erlking and The Wild Hunt #canto 6 spoilers

[ego-meliorem-esse]

Could you talk a bit about Matthew and Alfred relationship? Our boys need love too

The lads! The fellas! The absolute units!

Bear with me here I wanna give a little bit of a context and a personal explanation as to why I'm really fascinated with these two countries in general.

If there is one nationfolk relationship that comes as close to pure and friendly as it possibly can, it would be the Us-Can one. Of course, it has major problems and unavoidable disputes. But let me tell you, as a balkan, ex-yugoslav cretin, I cannot help but be intriqued with the way these two comunicate. They make fun of eachother sure, they have disputes and squables, sometimes outright clashes, but when there is crisis in the US for example, all I hear is Americans straight up saying "ok well time to move to Canada". It's fascinating to me! As a Croat who, after returning from Serbia from a 3 day trip, brought home souveniers (key chains mostly, with the Serbian flag) I was yelled at by my dad who afterwards didn't talk to me for a few days. All because I dared to bring this enemy countrys flag into our home. Now, I was born in 1999. I have no connection to the war 8 years prior. No excusable, personal vandetta. But still it' s very much acceptable to hate so strongly. And even if it wasn't 8 years that passed, but 80, there still would be a widely accepted resentment. But alas, I am not talking about people, cus frankly people are just people. Alliances and relations between countries are another thing. Imagine sharing a huge fucken border with another country and being friends. My euro brain is imploding. Uncomprehensible.

Now I do understand the US is often described as a bit of a phycho, and frankly Canada is an expert at dealing with the phycho. Kudos. Keep the yanks from whipping out their home protection assault rifles and unleashing hell fire is risky shit. Canada manages tho. What I'm really interested in is the USA's view of Canada. They aren't a threat. They aren't suspicious. They are a force to be reckoned with tho, but they are friends. If there is one ally the USA can rely on its the maple sucking french/anglo bastards up north. So much history in such a short time. Fascinating.

To relate this to the bros, I think these two understand eachother better than most. Matt is quiet, obsetvand and passive (mostly), while his unit of a brother is loud, idealistic and prone to thinking the world owes him time on the world stage. And it works. Matt is the one to talk to his brother in a way that gets Alfred to listen. H speaks Alfreds language and can communicate with him freely. I think that that is a skill and in the modern era, a privilage that not many have. Not many dare to tell Alfred to his face that he fucked up majorly, but Matt can. He knows he can. Alfred knows he can. So he does. Matt can pull his brother aside after an outburst, and for the lack of a better word, humble him.

Alfred respects his brothers oppinion more then other nations'. He went from seeing Matt as a weak, self-pitying and ambitionless dominion, to accepting his views, ideas and even asking his oppinion on certain matters. I like to draw a parallel here. Matt had to sacrifice everything and himself to have Arthur call him into the war room and ask Matthew for his oppinion. Alfred is not much different. It takes time for Matthews voice to be heard, but when the time comes, it's desperately needed.

Alfred tho, is and always will be Alfred. And if somthing else catches his attention, he will ignore the house on fire across the street. He is prone to isolation and ignoring his brother for extended periods of time, just sending him a tiktok every month or so. That being the only indication to Matt that his brother is alive. Alfred has so much shit going on and his 13 braincells have to spread evenly across to cover it all. His brother is a constant in his life, stable and therefore forgotten.

That being said, I don't think there is another person on Earth Alfred loves more than his brother. Showing it is not something he ever learned tho. He knows he cannot buy his way into showing his love for Matt, so with his lack skills of other forms of love expressions, he does nothing.

As for Matt, he checks up on Alfred as much as he can. His history and past have tought him to expect nothing form the people he loves. So he doesn't. He knows Alfred is his closest ally and best friend, but doesn't ask for anything Alfred himself isn't giving. He is a person who waits to be asked to hang out on Saturday instead of asking his friends himself.

So while almost all I talked about is sad and somewhat negative, I do think the bond and conversations these two share are one of the most honest and true expressions of brotherly love. And by god I usually don't use the world love when describing nation-folk relationships, but in this case there isn't a replacement.

sorry for the personal shit and Alfred slander, I love him.

#sorry for the long post #im hungover #eating doritos and smoking cigs #hetalia #hws america #hws canada #ask meli #meli speaks #my headcanons

[whencyclopedia]

Dunkirk Evacuation

The Dunkirk Evacuation of 26 May to 4 June 1940, known as Operation Dynamo, was the attempt to save the British Expeditionary Force in France from total defeat by an advancing German army. Nearly 1,000 naval and civilian craft of all kinds, aided by calm weather and RAF air support, managed to evacuate around 340,000 British, French, and Allied soldiers.

The evacuation led to soured Franco-Anglo relations as the French considered Dunkirk a betrayal, but the alternative was very likely the capture of the entire British Expeditionary Force on the Continent. France surrendered shortly after Dunkirk, but the withdrawal allowed Britain and its empire to harbour its resources and fight on alone in what would become an ever-expanding theatre of war.

Germany's Blitzkrieg

At the outbreak of the Second World War when Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, France was relying almost entirely on a single defensive line to protect itself against invasion. These defences were the Maginot Line, a series of mightily impressive concrete structures, bunkers, and underground tunnels which ran along France's eastern frontiers. Manned by 400,000 soldiers, the defence system was named after the French minister of war André Maginot. The French imagined a German attack was most likely to come in two places: the Metz and Lauter regions. As it turned out, Germany attacked France through the Ardennes and Sedan on the Belgian border, circumventing most of the Maginot Line and overrunning the inadequate French defences around the River Meuse, inadequate because the French had considered the terrain in this forested area unsuitable for tanks. Later in the campaign, the Maginot Line was breached near Colmar and Saabrücken.

To bolster the defences of France, Britain had sent across the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) under the command of General John Vereker (better known by his later title Lord Gort, 1886-1946). Around 150,000 men, mostly infantry, had arrived in September 1939 to strengthen the Franco-Belgian border. The BEF included the British Advanced Air Striking Force of 12 RAF squadrons. The aircraft were mostly Hawker Hurricane fighters and a few light bombers, all given much to the regret of RAF commanders who would have preferred to have kept these planes for home defence. The superior Supermarine Spitfire fighters were kept safely in Britain until the very last stages of the battle in France. The BEF had no armoured divisions and so was very much a defensive force, rather than an offensive one. More infantry divisions arrived up to April 1940, so the BEF grew to almost 400,000 men, but 150,000 of these had little or no military training. As General Bernard Montgomery (1887-1976) noted, the BEF was "totally unfit to fight a first class war on the Continent" (Dear, 130). In this respect, both Britain and France were very much stuck in the defensive-thinking mode that had won them the First World War (1914-18). Their enemy was exactly the opposite and had planned meticulously for what it called Fall Gelb (Operation Yellow), the German offensive in the west.

Totally unprepared for a war of movement, the defensive-thinking French were overwhelmed in the middle weeks of May 1940 by the German Blitzkrieg ("lightning war") tactics of fast-moving tanks supported by specialist bombers and smartly followed by the infantry. German forces swept through the three neutral countries of the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. The 9th Army punched through the Ardennes and raced in a giant curve through northeast France to reach the coast around Boulogne. The BEF and the northern French armies (7th and 1st) were cut off from the rest of the French forces to the south. Germany had achieved what it called the 'Sickle Slice' (Sichelschnitt). By 24 May, the French and British troops were isolated and with their backs to the English Channel, occupying territory from Dunkirk to Lille. Although there were sporadic counterpunches by the defenders, Gort had already concluded that the French army had collapsed as an operational force. Gort considered an attack on the Germans to the south, which he was ordered to make, would have achieved very little except the annihilation of his army. The BEF must be saved, and so he withdrew to the north.

Continue reading...

#History #DunkirkEvacuation #Britain #Dunkirk

[maaarine]

English Just 'Badly Pronounced French', Paris Academic Says (Tom Barfield, Barron's, March 09 2024)

"French linguist Bernard Cerquiglini would like to send a copy of his new book, "The English language doesn't exist: it's badly pronounced French", to King Charles III. (…)

Norman French's use by the new colonial aristocracy endowed English with words that at first glance might look homegrown, like "cabbage", "lure" or "wage", in the 150 years after William the Conqueror took the throne.

But Cerquiglini is most interested by the 13th and 14th centuries, when French -- by then a second language used in trade, administration and law -- bled freely into English because "a job, fortunes in land or cash, upholding a contract, liberty or even one's life, could depend on mastering" the tongue.

Half of English's borrowings from French took place from 1260-1400, producing words like "bachelor", from the old French word "bachelier", meaning a young noble not yet a knight.

"Travel" is related to the modern French word for labour, "travail", while "clock" stems from the French "cloche", a bell struck to sound the hours before mechanical timepieces were invented.

By the time Shakespeare came to write his plays in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, around "40 percent of the 15,000 words in his works are of French origin", Cerquiglini notes.

These days the place of "Anglo-Saxon" words in modern French can stir defensiveness in Paris, often from the Academie Francaise, charged since 1635 with preserving the language in its "pure" form.

"Language in France is official, of the state, national. And so of course we have an academy" whose members enjoy "a ridiculous outfit, a sword, a palace by the Seine" river in Paris, Cerquiglini said.

In recent years the academy has railed against imports related to Covid-19, such as "cluster" or "testing", as well as tech terms like "big data".

Cerquiglini said the academy has scored some worthwhile wins, such as convincing the French-speaking world to use the native-sounding "logiciel" instead of the once-omnipresent "software".

But he added: "This isn't an invasion, these are French words that have gone for training in England and that are coming back to us.""

#article

[frevandrest]

There had been a number of questionable takes recently regarding the Frev in the past few days that came in succession . Do you reckon if works in the past decades or so that were published in France and were made available to English readers would it may have at least mitigated such thing to ever happen or is the black legend so ingrained that even with the idea of an era where works by Belissa et Al were in circulation in English to people outside France, the result would be the same?

Before I reply, I need to make a disclaimer that I am not the best person to answer this question. I arrive from a very different educational tradition (neither Anglo nor French), and I actually discovered embarrassingly late about the whole black legend and the fact that, among some, the French Revolution was considered a horrible event (that failed). I was taught it was an event that changed the world forever (and helped shape the world today, mostly in a positive sense) and that it has to be studied to understand our world. So I am not the best person to judge the effect of the black legend vs new historiography. If others have more informed takes, please tell us; I am super interested. Now, the bad (as in, incorrect) takes we get here. They happen periodically, and they tend to be very similar, often by people claiming (and I have no reason to doubt them) that they are taking history courses on frev, typically in the USA. So these takes tell me about the state of teaching frev in the USA (Anglo?) sphere. Which is not necessarily the same as "what experts publish in academic articles", because - not sure if people are aware of it, so I need to emphasize - you do not have to be an expert on a topic to teach it at the university level. You typically need a PhD in the discipline, but not necessarily on the topic of the course you teach. I can imagine that they won't give a frev course to someone with a PhD in, say, antiquity, but "early modern period" is good enough, even if you are not an expert on France or the revolution.

Sorry for this preamble; I swear it is related to your question. What I mean is that these specific takes we saw here seem to me (though I could be wrong) not necessarily a product of current English-language academia on frev, but what students are taught. So yes, it is a good question on what kind of books students are given on the mandatory readings list, and if those teaching are even aware of the most current English-language books on the topic (let alone French). I swear most of this stuff is so dated and proven to be incorrect over and over again. We had someone a few months ago saying they read Carlyle for their frev class. ?? This is really strange to me, especially in the North American academia, where even books that are considered new-ish elsewhere, are seen as old, so why teach something published in early 19c? Unless you want to demonstrate changed attitudes about frev and discuss historiography, propaganda, etc. which doesn't seem to be the case. Those assigning such readings are teaching what they feel is true. So I can only guess that they never bothered to read newer stuff. Look. I am all for authors not liking the French Revolution or specific things in it (I am critical of many frev stuff myself), but you have to use current sources that go through earlier misconceptions. We can't still be stuck at "dictator Robespierre who ruled France", a thing that was disproven so long ago and no credible historian believes in (even if they hate Robespierre).

Now, this is about teaching history at the university level and not about experts in academia, because I do think most incorrect takes we get here on tumblr are from students. Experts sticking to the black legend and "horrible horror of the revolution that failed anyway and didn't achieve anything" are a different group. Though I am not an expert on the current historiography to judge it in detail. So, if someone reading this knows more and can explain, please share!

#ask #anonymous #frev #french revolution

[qsycomplainsalot]

I'd like to say, I really appreciate you taking an unapologetic stance on the French Revolution. In the US and UK there has been a renewed push in pop history and in fiction to portray the revolution as unjust, or as racist, sexist, undemocratic etc. etc. I even remember my underfunded public school history textbook back in the day having a big sob story about antoinette and the king and the nobles, trying to make us feel sorry for them. The recent addition of vague social justice language to discredit the idea of overthrowing oligarchs and unelected rulers makes it quite clear (to me, at least) that this is simply the fears of the ruling class manifesting themselves again. While certainly the revolution is Morally Complicated when taken as a whole, I feel no compunction to hand wring about the destruction of monarchy by any means necessary. SO, thank you!

That's a bit of an odd comment because I don't think I defend it that much ? And also it's funny because in France we're definitely not told enough about, and it ends up coming off better than it was. The thing is the first revolution was kind of an overall failure, it blundered along into achieving great things until monarchy returned in one way or another. The actual process of getting to actual democracy took almost a hundred years and you could argue even by the third republic we weren't there. But it got the ideals of enlightenment philosophers out of parlors and into government policies, it DECIDEDLY set a new tone for the relation between the people and the kings, and generally was a good precedent to dangle over the head of future monarchs. It broke the back of a royal dynasty that had been ruling France uninterrupted for eight hundred years, showing people that something else was possible. But it was also a brutal mess of conflicting ideologies and political reprisals. It never had a single effective government and did not in any way match the idea of progressivism tumblr bloggers assign to it. Of course all the while having to deal with external factors such as England bankrolling the whole of Europe to attack us because they wanted to have their backyard safe while taking over a third of the world's landmass. So like yeah I tend to defend the revolution against right wing idiots who try to make it seem like the French nobility didn't have it coming for hundreds of years, but I'm also gonna remind the people shipping St-Just and Robespierre that those were actual, deeply flawed and murderous bastards operating a repressive government "in the name of liberty". It's not a simple period of history to characterize, just like Napoleon's reign which if you ask me is the one with a real smear campaign run against it in the anglo world.

#history

[scotianostra]

On February 9th in 1587, news reached London of Mary, Queen of Scots execution the previous day.

The people went wild with joy, church bells were rung out in celebration, guns thundered a salute, bonfires were lit in celebration and there were impromptu feasts held in every street.

Elizabeth however, did not greet the news with the same enthusiasm! It is said she had signed the death warrant in anger when she was told that Mary had plotted against her to be the figurehead of a Catholic uprising in England. It is also claimed that she withdrew the warrant but it was retained by her spymaster Walsingham.

Historians still debate how much Mary knew about the plot to overthrow Elizabeth.

It is a fact that the English Queen became almost hysterical. Her biographer William Camden, wrote that

“her countenance changed, her words faltered, and with excessive sorrow she was in a manner astonished, insomuch as she gave herself over to grief, putting herself into mourning weeds and shedding abundance of tears”.

Her rage was vengeful against those who had acted on her behalf. They had expected her anger, but not quite this extreme! Some fled home, others were banished, and Davison who had carried the warrant to Fotheringay, was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Elizabeth wrote to James VI, telling him that his mother’s execution had happened without her knowledge, and whilst James at first displayed grief, he did not want to alienate Elizabeth, and told a group of angry nobles that he believed Elizabeth was genuine in her grief and would not do anything to effect the Anglo-Scottish alliance.

It was three weeks before news of Mary’s execution reached France, where there was widespread distress at the death of the King’s sister-in-law. The English Ambassador reported:

“I never saw a thing more hated by little, great, old, young and of all religions than the Queen of Scots’ death, and especially the manner of it. I would to God it had not been in this time”

On 12th March 1587 as a part of French national mourning a requiem mass was held at Notre Dame attended by Henri III, Catherine de Medici, and many of Mary’s Guise relations including her uncle, Elbeuf. A moving eulogy was given by Renauld de Beaune, Archbishop of Bourges, recalling the days of her youth and the spectacle of her magnificent wedding ceremony in Paris. It seemed to him ‘as if God had chosen to render her virtues more glorious than her afflictions’. She had become a cult figure.

It’s a disgrace the Scottish nation were denied a similar mark of respect for Mary, remember many Scots still thought of her as our rightful Monarch, although it has been said that in Scotland there was displays of anger towards Elizabeth for what had happened - despite the fact that they had forced Mary’s abdication twenty years earlier.

In the eyes of Catholic Europe, Mary was a Martyr, wrongfully put to death by the ‘heretic Elizabeth’. Philip of Spain believed it was his duty to avenge Mary’s death.

Nevertheless, Scotland and France did not act in revenge for Mary. Philip did however, with the Armada as we know. But this did not quite have the desired affect, thanks largely to the weather. It is ironic to think that Mary’s death gave both herself and Elizabeth their finest hour, Mary became the Martyr that she wanted to be, while Elizabeth became 'Gloriana’, with the “heart and stomach of a King”.

I will finish this post and go back briefly to Mary’s execution. Those present that day spoke of her great courage and dignity, just under 61 years later her grandson Charles I was also executed with the same bravery shown, whatever the faults or follies of the House of Stuart, its sons and daughters, with rare exceptions, have at least known how to die.

The pics show the death mask of Mary, her tomb in Westminster Abbey and a replica in The Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.

#scotland #scottish #history #england #france #spain #the stuarts

[fideidefenswhore]

She continued, 'After all, there was another cause which would convince your queen and Catherine to pursue a good amity. There was an old acquaintance between your queen's mother and the queen regent, when the former was one of the maids-of-honour of Queen Claude, sister of Renee of France, my own mother-in-law and dear friend to Catherine de Medici herself. They were friendly towards another. There is no reason for Elizabeth and Catherine not to continue that friendship.' The mention of Anne Boleyn stunned the English ambassador; it had never crossed his mind that the reputation of Elizabeth's mother in France could be used as a diplomatic tool to reinforce Anglo-French relations.

Blood, Fire and Gold: The Story of Elizabeth I & Catherine de Medici, Estelle Paranque

#lots of compelling insights from this book #like that the french court suppressed a book which 'slandered' anne boleyn in 1562 #had it been published in the midst of the timeline of marian england #it would not have been considered slander; one imagines..... #estelle paranque #elizabethan #anne boleyn #renee of france #catherine de medici #anyway posting this also bcus some of the HTF reviews have been. annoying #'aha isn't it funny anne had no friends that were women. isn't that telling. aha' #nicholas throckmorton

[oumaheroes]

How many languages does England know?

Far too many to define, many of them being that blurred area of dialect, pidgin, or creole between languages

He speaks an old form of Brythonic as his first language, then whichever particular ones the Celtic tribes of his land spoke. These languages and dialects are mostly forgotten or all mixed together- a word from one, a phrase from another, an expression from a third- but the earlier Brythonic language still comes to him in dreams sometimes, and the others as dreams of memories related to a particular region or person. The languages and dialects he shared with his brothers are clearer as he would have had practise after the languages themselves died out, but the ones he alone held all those years ago are almost long gone

Aside from these he knows Latin and Ancient Greek, which both once would have been essential. Norman French, obviously, and Norse too- all languages which have melded into English and left their mark. The same can be said for the old Celtic- Latin creole, and the old Anglo-French: remains of his people merging and taking in new waves of immigration.

Old English itself he would still be considered fluent in, if rusty, although some dialects are weaker and the Wessex dialect is strongest (more written text from this one survives compared to the others). This is the same for Middle English, and obviously Early Modern and Modern English he's an old hat

These older languages are becoming weaker the more time goes by and the less he uses them. He can't use or remember perfectly all of his languages, it's impossible to. And although I think nation memories are better than mortals, and overall they are FAR better at learning and remembering language in order to communicate with whoever they claim as their own, there is still only so much time he can dedicate to maintaining a language that no one else ever uses, or remembers. He does not need to keep these linguistic nuances, they are not essential to understand his people, and so they exist either for him and his memories alone, or a few other people. He and Francis are the last speakers of Norman French and Anglo-French. He and his brothers the last Brythonic speakers. He alone remembers the forgotten Cumbric language, or the spoken words of Boudica, and with no one but himself to talk to the language shrinks and grows stale. Still there, but barely. Coming in bursts, or leaving him lost for words

For modern languages, he knows his brothers' languages, athough not all of their branches and forms and he likely has a few centuries of knowledge missing from several of them. He knows modern Welsh, Cornish, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic, and understands Francis when he speaks Breton.

He's fluent in French, German, Hindi, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Arabic and, as these are used the most in his life outside of English, he's probably now more comfortable in these than Latin or Ancient Greek which once would have held the same role for international communication.

He's also let many languages slide. He would have once been fluent in modern Greek, and Cantonese, although now he's not. Urdu would have once been great, and although he's good at Portuguese and understands it perfectly, he trips over himself sometimes and might mix it up more with Spanish than he used to. There are many many more too that i'm missing from this section- the man has travelled about and he'll have picked up a good many on his travels to use when he needs to and then forget when he doesn't

#aph england #hws england #hetalia #hws #aph #hetalia meta #hetalia headcanons #heroes headcanons

[historia-vitae-magistras]

How much would you, based in your head canon, say is nurture as versus nature? I know you don't mean actual "blood relations" with family like Rat Dad and kids, but in general, how much of their relationships with each other is tied to the circumstances of how they were nurtured for as versus how they may be under other circumstances. That is, how much of their family is perception and choice?

Just for example, if Alfred had been raised by Antonio, would his relationship with Maria and Matthew be reversed? As in, would he be the younger sibling to Maria, while Matthew could be a friend but wasn't a sibling?

Oooh, good question. So in my mind, there are at least three major things for nations rather than two. Culture, geography, and privilege.

Privilege is the one that defines their relationship to a 'parent' most. Maria, for example, added so much to the Spanish economy that it collapsed the global economy. She's beautiful and intelligent, and Antonio, with his history as Hispania under Rome, used the word he knew from Lucius and set the precedent. That was a choice on the European part. And it was often a long period of that being unchallenged by those dubbed their offspring because of the respectability that could give.

But the second would be culture. The Anglosphere is a very weird concept. As adults, Zee and Jack have a strange time calling Matt or Alfred 'family,' but they and Matt usually don't outright deny it because they have yet to chuck the limey off the money and still look to Britain in some ways as the mother country. 100 year ago, Matt was extremely culturally British; calling him their elder brother was no problem. Alfred was never a part of their lives in childhood. But now Canada is largely French or Americanized and largely irrelevant in their affairs, and the word 'sibling' doesn't quite sit right, but they've perhaps yet to find a better word. Jack and Zee, however, would have a lot longer to go to break that definition between themselves, being both of British cultural background and geographically close. It's much the same in the Atlantic Archipelago. Rhys and Alasdair are both locked into Arthur with their borders in Britain. And they're locked into Brighid culturally due to their Celtic backgrounds.

So, geography often makes them close regardless of culture. Maria and Alfred will be in close proximity, regardless of their backgrounds. He and Maria shared much the same sense of closeness that he and Matt shared from the get-go, but they're translating nebulous dirt fuck feelings onto much more defined human concepts.

There are also the social mores of the time when these relationships were happening. In Matt's earliest days, there wasn't much English influence at all, and he's mostly a very mixed culture of French-Indigenous. So the cultural aspect of siblings isn't present yet. He's also male presenting. Alfred was trying to use human language to describe a relationship that is only partially human itself. When he was very little, the word others used was 'brother' and at that age it was the most appropriate. But when he was independent, he re-evaluated and wanted to find a word for his intense bond with his northern neighbor. But independent or not, he's taking into account what is acceptable, what is appropriate, and what feels right, and that hasn't changed much despite the revolution. The closest word he could find was the existing one. 'Brother.' Matt has always found it accurate enough to reciprocate, so their relationship remained familial, which was later reinforced by Canada's transformation into a largely Anglo culture and country.

Maria, presenting as female and coming to Alfred's point in life where he's a hormonal, self-righteous teenager, sent absolutely careening from any female attention, and Maria was no exception whatsoever. She was the best read and educated of any New World country then. She was in the throws of the enlightenment before Alfred was in many ways, and he was dumbstruck by her perspectives and knowledge at that age. There's this pull between them, the closeness of the future and their geography, and the best way in both their cultural contexts of the time to view and indulge that feeling was through a romantic and intellectual lens.

All that probably reads like a pretentious way of saying, 'Well, it depends,' but that's the thought process.

#fuck i wrote an essay again sorry #Maria || lo que viví lo estoy muriendo todavía #Alfred || o beautiful for spacious skies #Matthew || my country is winter #meatsack mechanics || the sociology and biology of nations #the ask box || probis pateo

[fac-romam-iterum-magna]

You know with the mini drama around turkey vs lithuania beauty battle, i've noticed people were refering to turkey as poc and it kind of surprised me people consider him as such.

Also since we're at it, can we have a discussion on why you think he's POC and what do you consider as white. I am gueniunly interested by your view on this ^^

Personally i am half french half arab and it never made sense to me, especially the term PoC. I mean, it just mean non-white, why would there be a specific word for that when the majority of the world is "PoC", are "whites" the normality ? Also the term white as always been a blurred thing, at one point even the finns weren't considered at such. Although i understand in anglo-saxons country (especially usa) it has an actual meaning in society.

I know it isnt really related to hetalia but im still curious on your thought guys ^^'

#hetalia #Hws turkey