Gorgoll2 Senior Member Brazil veritassword.blogspo Joined 5152 days ago 159 posts - 192 votes Speaks: Portuguese*
| Message 1 of 5 06 June 2012 at 11:30pm | IP Logged |
The great military Polish leader was known in life as a language prodigy. He grew was
billingual at Polish and Chancellary Ruthenian. At his education he learnt French, German,
Italian and Latin. Later on the life he learnt Turkish and Tatar.
He wa some among the greatest european generals, becoming known in the Catholic World as
"The Savior of Christendom" and by Muslims as "The Lion of Lechistan". The constellation
of "Scutum" was named after him, and the "Croissant" was created to celebrate his victory
at Vienna.
Edited by Fasulye on 09 June 2012 at 3:04am
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Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5853 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map
| Message 2 of 5 09 June 2012 at 3:10am | IP Logged |
NL: Hier is een kort Wikipedia-artikel in het Nederlands over hem.
ENG: Here is a short Wikipedia-article in Dutch about him.
NEDERLANDS: Wikipedia-article about Jan III Sobieski
Unfortunately, it's not mentioned in this article which languages he spoke.
Fasulye
Edited by Fasulye on 09 June 2012 at 3:11am
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clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5184 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi
| Message 3 of 5 11 June 2012 at 12:19pm | IP Logged |
I am surprised, he is very famous in Poland, but I didn't know he invented croissants.
At that time Poland was a very multicultural country, so I guess many people would have been converstational in languages like: Latin (obviously), Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Lithuanian, Yiddish, German, even Armenian.
but I could not find any info about his polyglot skills on the net.
Well, may be I am ssearching wrong places.
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Gorgoll2 Senior Member Brazil veritassword.blogspo Joined 5152 days ago 159 posts - 192 votes Speaks: Portuguese*
| Message 4 of 5 12 June 2012 at 2:21am | IP Logged |
From the Enghlish Wikipedia: "John Sobieski was born 1629 in Olesko, a small town near
Lwów in Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine) to a notable noble family de Sobieszyn Sobieski of
Clan Janina. His father, Jakub Sobieski, was the Palatine of Ruthenia and Castellan of
Kraków; his mother, Zofia Teofillia Daniłowicz was a granddaughter of Hetman Stanisław
Żółkiewski. After graduating from the Nowodworski College in Kraków, young John
Sobieski then graduated from the philosophical faculty of the Jagiellonian University.
After finishing his studies, together with his brother Marek Sobieski, John left for
western Europe, where he spent more than two years travelling. During that time he met
major political figures: Louis II de Bourbon, Charles II of England and William II,
Prince of Orange, and learnt French, German and Italian, in addition to Latin. This
proved to be vital during his later military career.
Both brothers returned to Poland in 1648 and volunteered for the army during the
Khmelnytsky Uprising. Jan founded his own banner of cavalry and commanded it in the
rank of Rotamaster. After the Battle of Zboriv, the brothers were separated and Marek
died in Tatar captivity the following year. Jan was promoted to the rank of pułkownik
and fought with distinction in the Battle of Berestechko. A promising commander, John
was sent by King John II Casimir to Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire as an envoy. There,
Sobieski learnt the Tatar language and studied Turkish military traditions and tactics.
After the start of the Swedish invasion of Poland known as "The Deluge", John Sobieski
was among the Greater Polish regiments led by Krzysztof Opaliński, Palatine of Poznań
which capitulated at Ujście, and swore allegiance to King Charles X Gustav of Sweden.[1
However, in less than a year he returned with his unit to the Polish side, and after
April 1656, he again fought for the Polish king."
But, I think polyglottery is pretty common in Poland: The PLC had around eight
official languages. In general, PLC was a pretty uncommon state: It had elected kings -
Jan Sobieski himself was not born as a royal - and had the 2nd biggest European area
untill its dissolution. The premier Jósef Piludski aso spoke Russian, Polish,
Lithuanian, French, German and English.
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napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5022 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written)
| Message 5 of 5 12 June 2012 at 5:47am | IP Logged |
clumsy wrote:
I am surprised, he is very famous in Poland, but I didn't know he invented croissants.
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If memory serves, he did not invent croissants himself. They were invented by a baker, whose name I fail to recollect, in honour of his victory over the Ottoman Turks at Vienna.
The shape of the croissants resembles the Islamic crescent moon that was present in the Ottoman banner.
Edited by napoleon on 12 June 2012 at 5:53am
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