What Languages Do The Royals Speak?

[Denville]

Originally Posted by Tweetybird

Prince Albert I read on wiki speaks Italian, French, English and German. And went to University in the USA and majored in Political Science. He is considered one of the richest royals. And has 2 children outside of marriage one American Black and one French a boy. And the Monaco constitution was changed that line of succession could only be inside of marriage. So Charlene and Albert's son Jacques is the heir to the throne. And yes Albert having an American mother likely they spoke English growing up and his English would be especially good as he spent summers at a summer camp in the USA and went to American University. Although noted he did renounce his American citizenship. Likely for tax purposes. And due to Monaco being considered a tax haven for the super rich is likely why Albert is one of the richest royals. Anyway he speaks Italian, French, English (American) and German. Which is impressive. And my wandering point about Charlene being so stunning is that language ability was not the reason Albert married her. She is absolutely stunning.

She may be absolutley stunning ( I dont see it myself) but this thread is about languages of royals

[RandyDrx]

Originally Posted by Denville

Scots and English are quite different languages... just as Irish Gaielic and English are different languages.

I believe you're thinking of Scottish Gaelic, Scots (which is different from Scottish Gaelic) and Modern English are actually pretty similar considering both languages are descended from Middle English.

[lucien]

The Dutch Royals are polyglots,as most Dutch are.As one should.

All speak english,french and german ofcourse,added with spanish in the King s family and Princess Irene and her children and they also master Italian,as does Princess Beatrix and Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien.So four languages is a minimum for starters.

[Somebody]

Originally Posted by Mbruno

I think you are overreacting a little bit.

(Standard European) Dutch was the official language of the Boer republics of Orange and Transvaal (officially the Orange Free State and the South African Republic). Likewise, the South Africa Act 1910, i.e. the original monarchical constitution of the Union of South Africa passed by the UK Parliament, declared that English and, again, Dutch were the official languages of the Union. Afrikaans became an official language pretty much through the backdoor when, in 1925, the Parliament of the Union passed a law saying that the references to Dutch in the constitution should be interpreted as "including Afrikaans".

Yes, Afrikaans and Dutch are now separate languages (in terms of phonology, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling), but Afrikaans developed from the vernacular Cape Dutch dialect and was later standardized as a separate written language from European Dutch. The notion of Afrikaans being a different language from Dutch didn't really emerge until the early 20th century.

It is probably now difficult for Afrikaners to understand Dutch without formal training because Afrikaans grammar, in some aspects like verb morphology, is simplified/regularized compared to Dutch, and they may not recognize certain inflections. It should be easier for Dutch speakers to understand Afrikaans though (it is definitely much closer to Dutch than, let's say, German).

As a native speaker of Dutch with friends and colleagues being native speakers of Afrikaans, I assure you that we do NOT understand each other if each of us speaks our own language (until one of us learns the other's language). We will recognize parts and words (because yes, Afrikaans developed from Dutch and somewhat seems a simplified form - it is interesting that our friends from South Africa when learning Dutch find it easier to understand Surinamese Dutch than Dutch from the Netherlands); but for a fluent conversation we will always switch to English.

[Mbruno]

There you go. In the interview below, which was linked in another forum, former Canadian PM Jean Chrétien recalls speaking French to the Duke of Edinburgh and praising him for speaking it so well for "an Englishman".


https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/cont...ilip-1.5381102

[Tweetybird]

Thanx for positing the article on Prince Phillip ability to speak French. I figured he could speak French living in France until he was 8 years old. I still find it fascinating that his mother Princess Alice was deaf since 4 years old and his first true language was likely sign language learned from his mother. And I remember reading his next oldest sister was 7 when he was born and sent to school and he was basically raised as an only child. Such an interesting person. I read that he was involved in the planning of the car that carried his coffin. Strange to think. Although logical.

[Moonmaiden23]

Originally Posted by Mbruno

There you go. In the interview below, which was linked in another forum, former Canadian PM Jean Chrétien recalls speaking French to the Duke of Edinburgh and praising him for speaking it so well for "an Englishman".


https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/cont...ilip-1.5381102

Nice article. But I am surprised that the DoE would tell former PM Chretien that "I"m not an Englishman"...my understanding is that Prince Philip considered himself fully English..at least since his marriage?

[Prinsara]

Again, no one was reasonably questioning that Philip was multilingual, but there is a strange lack of him being recorded doing it in an extremely long and public life.

Him telling Chretien "I've been speaking French since before you were born" is très amusant.

When you can write "no fixed address" as a young man, I suspect that that stays with you. Philip did his very best for the UK, but he had pretty good reasons not to view himself as a native.

[Iolanthe]

Here is a video of Prince Philip speaking German:

https://youtu.be/_v_Zy9pP66E
His pronounciation is near native, but you can hear that he didn't have much practice in quite a time.

[Prinsara]

Originally Posted by Iolanthe

Here is a video of Prince Philip speaking German:

https://youtu.be/_v_Zy9pP66E
His pronounciation is near native, but you can hear that he didn't have much practice in quite a time.

Somebody found one! Have a cookie. Danke!

I wonder if that "Prince Philip speaking German" part is a new addition to the title, or just why this was so hard to dig up...? Ah, wait, I see it was only uploaded on the 9th. That would do it.

[Iolanthe]

Originally Posted by Prinsara

Somebody found one! Have a cookie. Danke!

I wonder if that "Prince Philip speaking German" part is a new addition to the title, or just why this was so hard to dig up...? Ah, wait, I see it was only uploaded on the 9th. That would do it.

It seems that the whole video was only recently added. i found the link in a twitter discussion about this video where he is speaking French: https://twitter.com/Inafr_officiel/s...029857795?s=19

[Mbruno]

Originally Posted by Prinsara

Somebody found one! Have a cookie. Danke!

I wonder if that "Prince Philip speaking German" part is a new addition to the title, or just why this was so hard to dig up...? Ah, wait, I see it was only uploaded on the 9th. That would do it.

She searched in German (Prinz Philip spricht Deutsch). That was the trick apparently !

[Prinsara]

Originally Posted by Iolanthe

It seems that the whole video was only recently added. i found the link in a twitter discussion about this video where he ist speaking French: https://twitter.com/Inafr_officiel/s...029857795?s=19

His French is great but his accent definitely isn't any kind of native. It's interesting how his demeanor doesn't change regardless of language, unlike many other people. He speaks (at least) three languages the exact same way.

Knowing all these languages and being able to use them so easily is very good for your brain and probably helped keep him sharp his whole life. I am sad that he had to die for us to be able to view these again.

[Zonk]

Let's stay on topic.

Posts that have nothing to do with the subject of this thread, Languages that Royals Speak have been deleted off topic.

[Prinsara]

Here is King Harald of Norway speaking English in two very different accents!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=VchDnsnJRmM

https://youtube.com/watch?v=RKLXpiDzlzI

(The American I assume he acquired as a child in the US in the forties [...and there must be quite a story about from who, and it's not getting covered on Atlantic Crossing]. The British was presumably taught to him?)

(Sorry, I can't be the only NA-English speaker who breaks out laughing every time he says "historical", right? More like hysterical! )

[Tirilschatz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGvsedbsWFA

This is btw a video of Prince Charles speaking german. He might read from a paper, but you have to have a certain knowledge of a language to do so quite fluently. You can hear he's a native english speaker, but you can also hear that its not his first time speaking german.

[Denville]

yes I think that Charles speaks pretty good French and learned German, but problaby doesn't use it so much....

[Muhler]

Originally Posted by Tirilschatz

This is btw a video of Prince Charles speaking german. He might read from a paper, but you have to have a certain knowledge of a language to do so quite fluently. You can hear he's a native english speaker, but you can also hear that its not his first time speaking german.

Well, he has certainly been taught German, that's pretty clear to my ears.
Probably doesn't speak German very often though.

You can read from a piece of paper in another language, but unless you have been taught speaking it, your pronunciation will be way off. - How could it be otherwise?

[Muhler]

QMII speaking French, or perhaps reading a speech live in French.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bPk0wadmQ

[Halley]

"Most British Royals up until QEII's generation spoke German first. English came along later. Most spoke with a German accent in English.

Remember that the British Royals to this day are still looked upon by their aristocracy as being german and not english."



I know this was posted some years ago, but I feel I must correct this misconception. Queen Victoria was adamant that her first language was English - and a voice recording of her late in her reign does not have any German accent. She said she only learned to speak German after her marriage to Prince Albert. Her children all learnt English as a first language and from then on it was always English in the British Royal Family. Even Queen Mary (ostensibly a German Princess - Princess May of Teck) had a British mother (Queen Victoria's cousin Mary Adelaide of GB) and the family was brought up in England.