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TE Lawrence (lawrence of arabia) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| joshy Diglot Newbie secretagentstyle.com Joined 6131 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Greek, Russian | Message 1 of 12 01 April 2008 at 7:03pm | IP Logged |
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Does anyone know how many languages Lawrence of Arabia spoke? I was watching the movie the other day, and I thought that when they were looking over his dossier, they said 7 languages.
Just curious! Edited by joshy on 28 April 2008 at 7:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Makrasiroutioun Quadrilingual Heptaglot Senior Member Canada infowars.com Joined 5918 days ago 210 posts - 236 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, Armenian*, Romanian*, Latin, German, Italian Studies: Dutch, Swedish, Turkish, Japanese, Russian, Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 12 01 April 2008 at 10:57pm | IP Logged |
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Well, I'd venture to say English, French, German, perhaps Italian, maybe another European language or two, and at least one or two dialects of Gulf or Levantine Arabic and perhaps Classical Arabic as well.
Fascinating man and the movie is actually one of the highest-rated movies on imdb.com! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Topsiderunner Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6730 days ago 215 posts - 218 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Arabic (Written) | Message 3 of 12 04 April 2008 at 1:00pm | IP Logged |
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He very may well have also known some Greek and Latin, though I'm just hazarding a guess.
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| portunhol Triglot Senior Member United States thelinguistblogger.w Joined 6064 days ago 198 posts - 299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (classical) | Message 4 of 12 29 April 2008 at 6:42pm | IP Logged |
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I thought that this would be an easier question to answer. After searching the net pretty thoroughly I only found references to him knowing French, Classical Greek and Arabic, besides his native English. He translated the "Odyssey" into English as well as a French work of fiction. As a young man he toured parts of France on a bicycle and also mentions a knowledge of French in some of his letters that I found. He is most famous for knowing Arabic. He studied Arabic in Lebanon and at another time, before WWI, he went to many places in the Middle East dressed as an Arab and trying to pass for one. The movie "Lawrence of Arabia" portrays him quoting Classic Greek texts and the T.V. movie "A Dangerous Man" shows his profound knowledge of French and Arabic. It seems that these are the languages that he was best at although I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he knew others as well.
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| Javisst Newbie United States Joined 6113 days ago 35 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Italian, Swedish | Message 5 of 12 29 April 2008 at 11:59pm | IP Logged |
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"He spoke Arabic, French, Greek, Turkish, German and Italian fluently."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=190 90 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| portunhol Triglot Senior Member United States thelinguistblogger.w Joined 6064 days ago 198 posts - 299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (classical) | Message 6 of 12 30 April 2008 at 8:48am | IP Logged |
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Javist: Thank you for including the link. If you read it again, you'll find that the article says that David George Hogarth, the keeper of the the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, spoke those languages and not T.E. Lawrence.
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| Javisst Newbie United States Joined 6113 days ago 35 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Italian, Swedish | Message 7 of 12 30 April 2008 at 3:05pm | IP Logged |
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Oops, good catch! And the number of languages lined up so well.
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| Javisst Newbie United States Joined 6113 days ago 35 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Italian, Swedish | Message 8 of 12 30 April 2008 at 3:22pm | IP Logged |
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Here's a Google books link: T.E. Lawrence: Biography of a Broken Hero
French, German, Latin, Greek, Arabic and later some Assyrian and Turkish. That should be right. :P 1 person has voted this message useful |
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