Languages

"Delenda Est."

Authors can play around with languages. One of Everard's captors asks him:

"'Taelen thu Cimbric?'" (6, p. 208)

Everard replies:

"'Ja...ein wenig.'" (ibid.)

When this is not understood, he adds:

"'A little.'" (ibid.)

This works. His captor responds:

"'Ah, aen litt. Gode!...Ik hait Boierik Wulfilasson ok maim gefreond heer erran Boleslav Arkonsky.'" (ibid.)

Everard must improvise:

"'What the hell erran thu maching, anyway?...Ikh bin aen man auf Sirius - the stern Sirius, mit planeten ok all. Set uns gebach or willen be der Teufel to pay!'" (ibid.)

Wulfilasson suggests that they need an interpreter.

We remember dialogue in Thunderball. Bond, who does speak German, answers a phone:

"'Ja?'

"'Alles in Ordnung?'

"'Ja.'

"'Also hor zu! Wir kommen fur den Englander in zehn Minuten. Verstanden?'

"'Is' recht.'

"'Also, aufpassen. Ja?'

"'Zu Befehl!'"

-Ian Fleming, Thunderball (London, 1965), 16, p. 148.

We are surprised to understand so much.