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I was reading the thread (Tintin & co must have Babelfish swimming around in their heads) where it was suggested that Hergé decided to disregard the language barrier which would have existed in some of the adventures.

Ignoring the fact that Hergé often used artistic license with regard to languages (i.e. in the original books French is spoken more than 99% of the time) I worked out that if Tintin had to speak other languages it was possible for him to have used just 3 main ones in his adventures (with the exception of Land of the Soviets): French, English and Spanish.

I've made a list of the books with the languages (apart from French*) that I think Tintin may have used.

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets - He seemed to know Russian and German or is everybody speaking French? Difficult to say with this one...

Tintin in America - English throughout.

Cigars of the Pharaoh - Tintin probably would have spoken English in India. He shows a natural gift for languages by learning some Elephant.

Blue Lotus - English: the story starts in India and Tintin probably would have spoken English in Shanghai, not just within the British controlled sector.

The Broken Ear - Spanish would have been essential.

The Black Island - English. People in the UK have a very little understanding of French (indeed, any other language!)

King Ottokar's Sceptre - As a recipient of the Order of the Golden Pelican you would have hoped that Tintin learnt at least a smattering of Syldavian!

Prisoners of the Sun - Spanish. However, it's doubtful that the Inca felt comfortable conversing in the hated tongue of the Conquistadors. Also, Tintin tries out all 3 of his languages - French, Spanish and English - on a tomb ornament.

Land of Black Gold - English would have been spoken in the original version which is set in the British Mandate of Palestine (and possibly in the later Khemed-based version.)

The Red Sea Sharks - English: possibly in Khemed but definitely to the US Navy.

Tintin in Tibet - One of the rare occasions where Tintin converses in English in the original French version; his request for directions to the Chinese Shop in Kathmandu.

Flight 714 - I wonder which language was "spoken" telepathically?

Tintin and the Picaros - Spanish (plus his memorable Russian "Niet!")

*(I would consider these to be entirely French: Tintin in the Congo, The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Shooting Star, The Secret of the Unicorn, Red Rackham's Treasure, The Seven Crystal Balls, Destination Moon, Explorers on the Moon, The Calculus Affair, The Castafiore Emerald and Tintin and Alph-Art)

Cheers
Chris

Spanish. However, it's doubtful that the Inca felt comfortable conversing in the hated tongue of the Conquistadors
In this case, it would have likely been Quechua. Many traditional descendents of the Inca still speak it as either their first language or speak nothing but Quechua.
Courtney

PS: The reason that a lot of people in English-speaking countries don't worry about learning other languages is that English is the world language at this time. It used to be French (in Europe anyway) and before that, Latin, Greek and Arabic. I personally dislike the attitude that many my fellow Americans and some of our relatives (in the sense of human beings) in the UK have towards learning other languages.

Blue Lotus - English; the story starts in India and Tintin probably would have spoken English in Shanghai, not just within the British controlled sector.

I dunno... unless things were significantly different in the 1930s, I found that my experience in Beijing (if it's any indication, but you'd think the political capital would be more multilingual anyway) showed that almost no one understood English in mainland China except for a few younger students. Had Tintin been in Hong Kong that'd be one thing, but I don't imagine there was that much English around Shanghai in the inter-War period. Anyone free to correct me of course.

Tintin in Tibet - One of the rare occasions where Tintin converses in English in the original French version; his request for directions to the Chinese Shop in Kathmandu.

That's really interesting! I've never read Tibet except in English... what does he say in the original?

If I may step in, the dialogue in the French edition is :
Tintin : "Pardon, Messieurs, pourriez-vous m'indiquer une boutique tenue par un Chinois... euh... chinese shop ?..."
Man : "Chinese shop ?..."
Then ...
Man : "Chinese shop ?... There up, Sahib. You turn left ... Then big temple ... Then street right ... There Chinese shop ... Tcheng Li, the name."
Tintin : "Thank you very much !"

Haddock also asks if the fruit is "Good to eat ?", Tintin says "Voilà le "big temple" qu'on nous a indiqué", and on p19, the porter says "Ho!... Dog! Dog! Look! ... Look at dog! [...] Dog, tipsy-tipsy!".

Harrock n roll wrote: (1)Blue Lotus - English; the story starts in India and Tintin probably would have spoken English in Shanghai, not just within the British controlled sector.

See The Blue Lotus, page 12, frame 12.

With Indians (and bats*, frame left) around, can't Tintin even understand unseen languages such as Chinese (frame right)?

Harrock n roll wrote: (2)I would consider these to be entirely French: (...) The Castafiore Emerald

Tintin understands Italian too, and while crossing "La Gazza Ladra's" language barrier, he manages to solve the enigma...
(please see 'The Emerald: Indians in the meadow' thread)...

Harrock n roll wrote: (3)Flight 714 - I wonder which language was 'spoken' telepathically?

Well this one you'll have to guess, Chris, for that's how it all starts with rebuses... By the way, isn't Tintin familiar with Hieroglyph too?
(please see 'Tintin & hieroglyphs' thread).

Harrock n roll wrote: (4)Tintin and the Picaros - Spanish (plus his memorable Russian "niet!")

Does 'niet' have to be Russian? IMHO, it could be German or Dutch as well, meaning 'rivet', and thus be a language barrier able -among others- to 'rivet' the readers's attention on one of the corpus' most strange 'emotional fault', as Tintin prefers to take no risks at rescueing Bianca, and remains at the Hall...

* = please see 'The Seven Crystal Balls: any idea what this symbol means?' thread.

yamilah …can't Tintin even understand unseen languages? Sorry I couldn't find a better image, but please see…

It’s interesting; Tintin asks a policeman “T‘ai P‘in Lou?…??…” (I’m reading the black and white facsimile edition). The policeman replies in Chinese (“It is the third street along over there,” allegedly) and sticks out his arm. Yet only a few pages later Tintin addresses another policeman in English;

“Policemen (sic), J’ai trouvé un fou!…”

So he does speak at least one word of English in the original book, even if he happens to get it wrong ;) (sorry I don’t have a scan !)

Wow...! I had no idea of this sequence! Can you imagine an English edition having relatively extensive French dialogue (say, Tintin in Algeria or something), without any translation? Not very likely! Very telling of the relative influence of languages in modern Europe...

It’s interesting; Tintin asks a policeman “T‘ai P‘in Lou?…??…” (I’m reading the black and white facsimile edition). The policeman replies in Chinese (“It is the third street along over there,” allegedly) and sticks out his arm.

And of course, in order even to have been understood by the officer, Tintin would have had to be have been using the correct Mandarin tones, not just pronouncing the correct phonetics. Otherwise, the words would be entirely meaningless to a native speaker of Mandarin. (Though I found that the one word, without proper tones, which was somewhat understood was "Tiananmen"...) So apparently Tintin can get by in a little rudimentary Mandarin, too (or else Hergé was just being liberal with his linguistics...; ;) )

Jyrki21 Tintin would have had to be have been using the correct Mandarin tones, not just pronouncing the correct phonetics. Otherwise, the words would be entirely meaningless to a native speaker of Mandarin.

Well it seems the officer understood what he said as he gave the correct directions.
It could be that Tintin simply followed the policeman's arm and found his way, but the directions are quite complicated: "It is the third street along over there" (provided by a French site I found), or "The second boulevarde from here is Tai-ping Road", which we have in the Blue Lotus trivia section on this site - I'm not sure which is correct!

Either way Tintin understood him, not in Romanized mandarin script but Chinese characters. I think we could interpret this to mean Tintin also understands written Chinese! ;)

Either way Tintin understood him, not in Romanized mandarin script but Chinese characters. I think we could interpret this to mean Tintin also understands written Chinese…;)
Learning to read and write Chinese is a lot of fun if you have some time, and it wouldn't surprise me that Tintin would have when he wasn't on assignment. A lot of journalists, but especially foreign correspondents, speak more than one language (myself included.)
I'll look at my copy and translate if you'd like...but the fact that traditional characters are used can be a bit iffy. It may take some time. Most people who learn Chinese in school use the simplified standard, because that's the standard used in mainland China since the 50s.
Courtney

Harrock n roll wrote: Blue Lotus - English; the story starts in India and Tintin probably would have spoken English in Shanghai, not just within the British controlled sector.

English in the British sector; and Shanghaiese [Shanghai dialect] in the Chinese sector.

The Blue Lotus was set in the early thirties (The Mukden Incident, 1931). Although Mandarin was made the standard language of China in 1913, it was not 'learnable' until 1932.*


Jyrki21 wrote: Tintin would have had to be have been using the correct Mandarin tones, not just pronouncing the correct phonetics. Otherwise, the words would be entirely meaningless to a native speaker of Mandarin.


Although tones are an essential component of spoken Chinese, the policeman should be able to figure out/guess what Tintin, a foreigner seeking directions, is trying to say here simply because "Taiping Lu" sounds similar in Mandarin and Shanghaiese.

In Mandarin: tai4 ping2 lu4 [written in Hanyu Pinyin with tones marked]. In Shanghaiese: ta3 bin1 lu3 [written in Hanyu Pinyin with tones marked]

Harrock n roll wrote: Well it seems the officer understood what he said as he gave the correct directions. It could be that Tintin simply followed the policeman’s arm and found his way but the directions are quite complicated; “It is the third street along over there? (which I translated from French on Polyglotte Tintin) or “The second boulevarde from here is Tai-ping Road? which we have in the Blue Lotus trivia section on this site - I’m not sure which is correct…

Here is what the policeman says, as shown in the book: 這邊第二条大街就是太平路

zhe bian di er tiao da dao jiu shi tai ping lu [Hanyu Pinyin romanization]/che pian ti erh t'iao ta tao chiu shih t'ai ping lu [Wade-Giles romanization]

Literal translation in English: this side, the second boulevard is Taiping Road.

I think the policeman and Tintin are standing in the middle of an intersection when the directions are given out--let's visualize where Taiping Road is.


So, what should the correct English translation be, anyone?

--

* Mandarin was made the standard language of China in 1913. A set of phonetic symbols and a dictionary were created thenn to aid the teaching of the new standard language. However, this dictionary did not resemble Mandarin as it was spoken, so for decades only a few linguists could speak the language set down in this dictionary. It was in 1932 that a new dictionary based on the pronunciation and speech of Beijing came about and from then Mandarin was finally 'learnable'.