Mary's Accent and Languages

[AnnaNotherThing]

Thank you so much Muhler for your prompt reply...I knew you would come through for me...I was thinking it would be spelt something like uffatelig...so voldsudøvende is quite surprising...I am attempting to teach myself Danish using Jakob Martin Strid kids books and some Danish music but if words that look like voldsudøvende sound like oo-oo-veh-neh then I am in for a enormous challenge...Makes me appreciate what Mary and Marie and Henrik have had to do in marrying their respective Danish spouses...Sheesh! :)

[Muhler]

You are welcome.

However, had I not known about that episode I too would have believed the word you described was "uvenner" = litterally un-friends, i.e. former friends or friends who have had a major row.
And that would of course not be translated to English as perpetrator.

[nwinther]

A better word than "committing" would be "practicing" as in "practicing medicine".

"Udøver" is a more neutral word in Danish as you can "udøve" violence, first aid, art, fitness, etc.

"Commits" is more along the lines of "begå" also indicating a crime or some other deplorable act (i.e. a word with a non-neutral weight).

[Kataryn]

Originally Posted by Muhler

I learned recently of another word from the show Time Team. They were digging out Bronce Age graves, which the archeologists called: "a kist/kiste". That's a stone lined grave with a big stone slab on top.
The funny thing is that the Danish word for coffin, is "kiste".
I wonder if "kiste" went out of use in England, to be substituted with a new French/Normannic word: coffin?

In German a "Kiste" is a box made from wood. Or colloquial for "coffin", if you want to use it in a light, jokey mode. Like in "Wir landen alle mal in der Kiste" - we all land eventually in a wooden box. OTOH Kiste, too, means "bed", so the same sentence could mean: "we all will have sex one day". Well, beds used to resemble boxes, too (pre-IKEA, that is).

[Muhler]

Originally Posted by nwinther

A better word than "committing" would be "practicing" as in "practicing medicine".

"Udøver" is a more neutral word in Danish as you can "udøve" violence, first aid, art, fitness, etc.

"Commits" is more along the lines of "begå" also indicating a crime or some other deplorable act (i.e. a word with a non-neutral weight).

Yeah, I think you are right.

Originally Posted by Kataryn

In German a "Kiste" is a box made from wood. Or colloquial for "coffin", if you want to use it in a light, jokey mode. Like in "Wir landen alle mal in der Kiste" - we all land eventually in a wooden box. OTOH Kiste, too, means "bed", so the same sentence could mean: "we all will have sex one day". Well, beds used to resemble boxes, too (pre-IKEA, that is).

Thanks for making me smile.
Just to make it even more confusing for Mary and other poor souls trying to learn Danish, a "skibskiste" means a (ships-)chest, a box generally used for travelling or storage.
I read Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year some time back. Considering that the book was writting in the early 1700's I was utterly astonished to learn how many words I recogniced, that are used in modern German and Scandinavian but are now archaic in English

[MARG]

This is just a quick question. Does CP Mary speak French and if so, how well. I asked because before her marriage she was teaching English in France and married into a family that spoke French at home.

[Sun Lion]

Originally Posted by MARG

This is just a quick question. Does CP Mary speak French and if so, how well. I asked because before her marriage she was teaching English in France and married into a family that spoke French at home.

MARG, my understanding is that Danish was the first foreign language Mary learnt - think she said so herself in an interview in the early days.

I believe Mary taught Business English in Paris.

There used to be a blog on the internet by an American guy who was in the same group being trained as Mary - he mentioned her in passing.

It was interesting to read how tough it was, as you were trained and assessed and either sank or swam - no time to play the tourist.

Lessons had to be prepared and presented.

Those with tertiary qualifications - in any field - where seen as having the ability to make a success of it as they had the necessary discipline to apply themselves.

I think out of the original group of people starting together - only small, about a dozen I think from memory - only this guy and Mary were left at the end.

You had to find your own students and support yourself, though the school had leads and contacts.

This blog disappeared from the internet some years ago - this is my memory of things.

The school was, I believe, at 40 rue Cambon.

Perhaps the Danish posters have more information about this time in Mary's life - I'm assuming any details know then would have been published in more detail in Denmark than here in Australia.

Interesting details from Muhler's translation of the new Frederik book, about Mary and her Oz friend Amber Petty leaving Paris together by car and taking a week to drive themselves to Copenhagen when this chapter came to a close.

[Muhler]

While Mary's life up to meeting Frederik and also while she still lived in Australia while dating Frederik is well-covered and well-known. Her life from moving to Europe and until they got engaged in 2003 is very little known.

Anyway, it seems pretty clear her time in Paris was not a happy time for her.

It is not my impression that she is particularly well versed in French. I base that on how she approached Danish. Like making the rookie mistake of trying to translate directly, instead of translating whole terms and sentences.
So my impression is that she know enough to get by in Paris. Like reading signs, order a cup of coffee, get on a trains and talk about the weather and so on. But she would not be able to keep up a longer conversation and certainly not a more technical conversation about a more advanced topic like business.
She would probably be able to read and write French to some extent but if she doesn't keep it up, that will largely have been forgotten by now.

She would IMO be lost in a conversation within the DRF, where they speak French, since all of them, except Mary, are fluent in French and able to keep up a conversation on a high level.

So, yes, Danish is in my estimation, the first language Mary has learned. - And that was through hard work, being immersed in the language and having native personal teachers around, not least Frederik. Not to mention sheer necessity.

[carlota]

Originally Posted by MARG

This is just a quick question. Does CP Mary speak French and if so, how well. I asked because before her marriage she was teaching English in France and married into a family that spoke French at home.

in addition to the responses by other members, i recently heard mary speak in an event where she was awarding a french-speaking person an award. she ended her introduction in french, by saying something like 'thank you for all your work' in french. she definitely sounded english when pronouncing a few words, so i imagine she never properly learnt french and that danish was her first foreign language. i believe i posted the video in the 'royal languages' thread, as i do whenever i find videos of royals speaking in foreign languages, which is a topic of interest to me.

i am unsure how much the DRF speaks french now at home for mary to learn it / practice it, but i would imagine they generally revert to a language that they all feel comfortable in when together (such as english or danish).